July 23, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



363 



shrub, six to ten feet high ; Dalea Domingensis, two or 



three feet high ; Sophora secundijlora, about fifteen feet ; 



Bauhinia lunarioides, fifteen or twenty feet high; Mimosa 



malacophylla, a horribly hook-spincd vine, widely climbing 



over shrubs ; Rubus irivialis ; Coloneasler denlicula/a, eight 



to twelve feet high, *vvith somewhat virgate stems ; Rosa 



Mexicana, low and slender, on cool grassy slopes, under 



Oaks and Pines ; Philade/phus Coulieri, on cliffs and 



ledges ; Nescea salicifolia, common along streams ; Garrya 



ova/a, var. , Abelia coriacea, on summit ledges; Randia 



Xalapinsis, an erect shrub, ten to twenty feet high; 



Chiococca pJice?iostemon, with wide, shining evergreen 



leaves, and panicles of white flowers or white fruits, very 



ornamental, so large and stout a shrub that I expect 



yet to find it as a tree; Wyelhia Mexicana, 11. sp. , 



a composite shrub three to six feet high ; Foresliera 



racemosa, n. sp. , stems two to six inches thick, and 



ten to twenty feet high in clumps; Buddleia Humboldt- 



iana, extremely variable in size and character; Brachislus 



Pringlh, n. sp., here about three feet high, further south ten; 



Lanlana Camara; Lippia lycioides ; Lippia macrostachya, six to 



ten feet; Berendlia spinulosa, n. sp., rooting from fissures of 



the driest limestone cliffs and spreading over their faces; 



Crolon fruiticidosus, here a fall shrub; Bernardia my ricce folia; 



and Siillingia sanguinohnla, some six feet high, in large 



clumps by streams. , „ „ „ . 7 



charlotte, vt. C. G. Pnngle. 



Periodical Literature. 



The Blue Grass region of Kentucky is charmingly described 

 by John Burroughs in the Century Magazine for July, under 

 the title, "A Taste of Kentucky Blue Grass." It is in truth a 

 taste he gives us — more than a mere glimpse; the soul of the 

 landscape as well as its body has appealed to him, and he 

 transports us for a moment into its generous open spaces and 

 gives us the flavor of its cool winds and luscious vegetation. 

 As he says, the man of the woods and the man of the fields 

 both reside within him, it was, of course, to the latter that 

 this region spoke so attractively. Charming indeed is an 

 opening passage : " A perfect issue of Grass or Grain is a satis- 

 faction to look upon, because it is a success. These things 

 have the beauty of an end exactly fulfilled, the beauty of per- 

 fect fitness and proportion. The barren in nature is ugly and 

 repels us, unless it be on such a scale and convey such a sug- 

 gestion of power as to awaken the emotion of the sublime. 

 What can be less inviting than a neglected and exhausted Vir- 

 ginia farm, the thin red soil showing here and there through 

 the ragged and scanty turf ? and what, on the other hand, can 

 please the eye of a countryman more than the unbroken ver- 

 dancy and fertility of a Kentucky Blue Grass farm? . . . One 

 likes to see the earth's surface lifted up and undulating a little, 

 as if it heaved and swelled with emotion ; it suggests more 

 life, and at the same time that the sense of repose is greater. 

 There is no repose in a prairie; it is stagnation, it is a dead 

 level. Those immense stretches of flat land pain the eye, as 

 if all life and expression had gone from the face of the earth. 

 There is just unevenness enough in the Blue Grass region to 

 give mobility and variety to the landscape. From almost any 

 given point one commands broad and extensive views — -im- 

 mense fields of Wheat or Barley, or Corn or Hemp, or Grass 

 or Clover, or of woodland pastures. . . . The Blue Grass re- 

 gion is as large as the state of Massachusetts, and is, on the 

 whole, the finest bit of the earth's surface, with the exception 

 of parts of England, I have yet seen. In one way it is more 

 pleasing than anything one sees in England, on account of the 

 greater sense of freedom and roominess which it gives one. 

 Everything is on a large, generous scale. The fields are not 

 so cut up, nor the roadways so narrow, nor the fences so pro- 

 hibitory. Indeed, the distinguishing feature of this country is 

 its breadth : one sees fields of Corn or Wheat or Clover of 

 from fifty to one hundred acres each. But the feature of this 

 part of Kentucky which struck me the most forcibly, and which 

 is perhaps the most unique, are the immense sylvan or wood- 

 land pastures. The forests are simply vast grassy orchards of 

 Maple and Oak, or other trees, where the herds graze and re- 

 pose. They everywhere give a look to the land as of royal 

 parks and commons. They are as clean as a meadow and as 

 inviting as long, grassy vistas and circles of cool shade can 

 make them. AH the saplings and bushy undergrovvths com- 

 mon to forests have been removed, leaving only the large trees 

 scattered here and there, which seem to protect rather than 



occupy the ground. Such a look of leisure, of freedom, of 

 amplitude, as these forest-groves give to the landscape ! 



" What vistas, what aisles, what retreats, what depths of sun- 

 shine and shadow ! The grass is as uniform as a carpet and 

 grows quite up to the boles of the trees. One peculiarity of 

 the Blue Grass is that it takes complete possession of the soil; 

 it suffers no rival ; it is as uniform as a fall of snow. . . Some- 

 times the more open of these forest lands are tilled; I saw fine 

 crops of hemp growing on them, and in one or two cases 

 corn. But where the land has never been under cultivation 

 it is remarkably smooth — one can drive with a buggy with per- 

 fect ease and freedom anywhere through these woods. The 

 ground is as smooth as if it had been rolled." 



The fertility of this region may well seem marvelous to the 

 dwellers on New England farms — a fertility, as Mr. Burroughs 

 explains, which is due to the old limestone rock " laid down in 

 the ancient Silurian seas. The earth's surface seems once to 

 have bulged up here like a great bubble, and then to have 

 been planed or ground off by the elements. This wearing 

 away process removed all the more recent formations, the 

 coal beds and the conglomerate or other rocks beneath them, 

 and left this ancient limestone exposed. Its continued decay 

 keeps up the fertility of the soil. Wheat and Corn and Clover 

 are rotated for fifty years upon the same fields without manure, 

 and without any falling off in their productiveness. Where 

 the soil is removed the rock presents that rough, honeycombed 

 appearance which surfaces do that have been worm-eaten in- 

 stead of Worn. The tooth which has gnawed, and is still 

 gnawing it, is the carbonic acid carried into the earth by rain- 

 water. Hence, unlike the prairies of the west, the fertility of 

 this soil perpetually renews itself. The Blue Grass seems 

 native to this region; any field left to itself will presently be 

 covered with Blue Grass. It is not cut for hay, but is for graz- 

 ing alone. Fields which have been protected during the fall 

 yield good pasturage even in winter. And a Kentucky winter 

 is no light affair, the mercury often falling fifteen or twenty de- 

 grees below zero." 



Correspondence. 

 A Troublesome Grass. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I enclose a sample of coarse Grass which is infesting 

 my lawn. Will you kindly tell me what it is, and how I shall 

 proceed to get rid of it? It has been making a vigorous 

 growth all through June, and although the Blue Grass on the 

 lawn is cut closely every week, this jointed intruder snakes 

 along under it and throws out shoots a yard in length which 

 root at every joint. It seems indestructible, unharmed by 

 the sun of July or the frosts of winter. Is there any hope for 

 my lawn ? 



Frankfort, Ky. Mrs. W. T. 6. 



[This letter gives a forcible description of some of the bad 

 qualities of the Bermuda Grass {Cynodon Dactylon) and the 

 accompanying specimens prove that this is the pest. 



Bermuda Grass, sometimes called Wire or Scutch Grass, 

 is a strange combination of the good and bad. In the 

 northern states it is a dwarfed, late-starting grass of no 

 value for forage, and may become one of the worst of 

 weeds, requiring the utmost vigilance to subdue it. In the 

 south it is highly prized for pasturage, as it thrives upon 

 sandy soil under a tropical sun, forming a stiff turf that 

 binds securely the loose earth upon which it grows. Pro- 

 fessor Beal, in his work on " Grasses of North America," 

 quotes from Professor Phares, an expert student of southern 

 grasses, as follows: "As a permanent pasture grass I 

 know no other that I consider so valuable as this." How- 

 ard says that it is doubtful whether any crop is more val- 

 uable in the south than the Bermuda Grass when grown at 

 its best. When we leave the south and reach as far north 

 as Kansas, for example, it has been determined by careful 

 experimentation that this grass is worthless for either pas- 

 ture or meadow — it is only a weed of the most pernicious 

 sort. When looked at from the weed-standpoint, as it 

 must be in the belt of states between the north and south, 

 it is encouraging to know that it rarely seeds in the United 

 States; but like some other species of plants that rarely 

 mature fruit, the Bermuda Grass has a remarkable way of 

 spreading by its root-stocks, in which tendency it resem- 

 bles our own Quack Grass. To eradicate the pest from a 



