398 
THE DICTIONARY OF GARDENING, 
SCURF. A condition often met with in Potato 
tubers, in which the surface shows clefts or slits, beneath 
which lie black masses of rotting tissue. Observation of 
the cause shows this to be, in part at least, the presence 
of superfluous moisture in the soil. This favours greatly 
the production of what are known as lenticels, or small 
groups of loosely-arranged cells below the stomata. These 
loose cells increase, and readily absorb water from the 
exterior. The swelling bursts the outer skin of the 
tuber, forming the slits, and giving still more free 
access to water. Cork is formed to repair the injury; 
but is also burst by increased growth of the lenticel, 
and is renewed to repair the injury as far as possible. 
The cells saturated with moisture begin to decay, and 
offer a favourable occasion of entrance to the spores of 
Fungi; hence, in a short time, the tissues below the 
slits become blackened and soft, the cells show Fungus 
threads, and the starch is removed from the neighbour- 
ing cells. Even where the actual amount of material 
destroyed is small, the unsightly appearance of the tubers 
frequently lessens the value of the crop. The best 
remedy is good drainage, together with efficient means 
to loosen the soil, and to permit free access of air. 
The term “Scurf” is also applied to the loose, scaly 
matter on the epidermis. s 
SCURFY PEA. See Psoralea. 
SCURVY GRASS. See Cochlearia officinalis. 
SCUTATE, SCUTIFORM. Having the form of a 
small, round buckler. 
(from scutella, a dish or platter ; 
alluding to the form of the fruiting calyx). Helmet 
Flower; Skull-cap. Syn. Cassida. ORD. Labiate. A 
genus comprising about ninety species of stove, green- 
house, or hardy, annual or perennial herbs or sub-shrubs, 
decumbent or diffuse, rarely erect and tall, very rarely 
shrubs; they are scattered over temperate regions and 
the tropical mountains. Flowers blue, violet, yellow, or 
white, soli or in pairs, axillary or in terminal spikes 
or racemes; calyx campanulate, two - lipped, the tube 
dilated opposite the posterior lip into a broad, flattened, 
hollow pouch, both lip and pouch deciduous in fruit, the 
anterior lip closed after flowering, persistent; corolla 
tube long, naked inside; limb bilabiate, the upper lip 
entire or notched, the lower dilated, its lateral lobes free 
and spreading, usually connate with the upper lip, rarely 
with the lower; stamens four. Nutlets sub-globose or 
depressed. Leaves often toothed, sometimes pinnatifid 
or entire; floral ones conformed or changed into bracts. 
S. galericulata and S. minor are the British represen- 
tatives of the genus. The species described below are, 
for the most part, very handsome when in flower, and 
hence are well suited for ornamenting the front of flower 
borders. Any common garden soil is usually suitable. 
_ The herbaceous species may be increased by seeds, or by 
divisions; and the shrubby kinds may be readily mul- 
tiplied by cuttings. S. Mociniana is one of the most 
beautiful of stove, flowering plants, and may be easily 
grown by anyone with a cool stove or warm greenhouse 
temperature. The bunches of flowers are freely produced 
—one on the point of almost every shoot—and are very 
bright and effective. Cuttings of half-ripened shoots root 
readily in spring, or at almost any season, in a warm 
propagating-frame. Young plants should have their 
points pinched out once or ‘twice when growing, to en- 
courage a bushy habit, and so insure a much larger pro- 
duction of flowers. Nice little specimens may be grown 
in šin. pots. They succeed best in loam and leaf soil 
or decayed manure, with some sand intermixed. Except 
= where otherwise indicated, the species here given are 
hardy, herbaceous perennials. 
G _§. albo-rosea (white-and-rose). Ji. borne in long, terminal ra- 
cemes ; corolla lilac, becoming paler towards the base of the long 
tube. Summer. J, ovate-oblong, cordate at base, undulated, 
| 
Scutellaria—continued. 
Stem tetragonal. h. tag Woods of the upper Amazons, 1859- 
Stove shrub. (I. H. 584.) 
Fig. 461, SCUTELLARIA ALPINA. 
S. alpina (alpine).* ji. in oblong, tetragonal spikes ; corolla wholly 
purple or with the tube or lower lip yellow, lin. to 14in. long. 
August. Zł. sub-sessile or shortly petiolate, ovate, slightly acute, 
rounded or cordate at base, loosely-crenate, serrate, six to ten 
lines long, pubescent or pilose ; floral ones coloured, imbricated. 
Stems procumbent, often rooting at base. 
Asia, 1752. See Fig. 461. (A. F. P, 26, ; B. R. 1460; 
8B G. 90.) The variety lupulina has entirely yellow 
flowers. (B. R.1493, under name of S. lupulina.) 
S. aurata (golden-flowered). f. numerous, erect, in a terminal 
raceme; corolla yellow, very long, tubular-infundibuliform ; 
dicels short ;- bracts linear, reflexed. Summer. J. on rather 
ong petioles, ovate, obtuse, acuminate, auriculate-cordate at 
base, the lobes approximate, entire, or obsoletely and remotely 
denticulate. Stem tetragonal. A. lft. to 1sft. Brazil, 1863. 
Stove perennial, (L H. 1862, 368.) * j 
Ss. a. am com ner (sulphur-coloured). fl. of a pale sulphur-colour # 
smaller than in the type. (B. M. 6525.) F . s 
S. Columnæ (Columna’s). f. opposite, secund ; corolla dark 
purple, ten to twelve lines long, loosely pubescent outside, the 
throat dilated ; pedicels as long as the fruiting calyx ; racemes 
in. or more long, loose, slightly branched, pilose.: July. 
l. petiolate, ovate, Zin. long, crenate, broadly bsrdate or trun- 
cate at base, scarcely wrinkled, slenderly pubescent ; floral ones 
ovate. Stem erect, 2ft. to 3ft. high, branched, pubescent. 
South Europe, 1806. (S. B. F. G. 52.) 
S. costaricana (Costa Rica).* f. numerous, racemose, sub- 
secund ; calyx (and pedicel) dark purple, small; corolla of a rich 
golden-scarlet, the inside of the lips a deep yellow, 2}in. long, 
erect, tubular-infundibuliform. June. J, ovate, acuminate, 
serrate-dentate ; petioles rather long. Stem dark purple, erect. 
h. 1}ft. to Sft. Costa Rica, 1863. A beautiful stove perennial. 
(B. M. 5439.) i 
S. galericulata (skull-cap). f. secund. pubescent, solitary; 
corolla blue, variegated with white iniia 2in. long, the tbe 4 
curved ; bracts leaf-like ; pedicels very short. July to September. — 
l. shortly petiolate, Jin. to 2sin. long, oblong or ovate, cordate 
at base, obtuse or sub-acute, rather remotely: crenate-serrate, 
Stems 6in. to 18in. long, slender, simple or branched. Europe 
(Britain), &c. (Sy. En. B. 1060.) 
ging ora (Jarge-flowered), jl. in tetragonal, oblong spikes, 
which are eventually l4in. long; corolla alah, s oe 
in S. orientalis. July. l. long-petiolate, somewhat roundish- 
ovate, incised-toothed, softly tomentose beneath or on both 
sides; floral ones entire, imbricated, pubescent. Stems O- 
Pena ara Altaian Alps, Siberia, 1804. (B. M. 635.) W 
S. pulchella. ae i 
S. Hartwegi (Hartweg’s).* fl. scattered, in loose, simp! racemes ; 
corolla bright red, lin. long, with a violet lower lip.” Summer. 
Z. ovate, slightly acuminate, unequally crenate-serrate, roungyy 
* i 
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