OF GARDENING, 
442 THE DICTIONARY 
Skirret—continued. 
-of Skirret. The roots may be used from the end of 
September onwards, through the winter; before growth 
commences in spring, they should be lifted and stored in 
moderately dry sand. 
Fig. 495. TUBEROUS ROOTS OF SKIRRET. 
SKIRWORT. An old name for Skirret (which see). 
SKULL CAP. See Scutellaria. 
SKUNK CABBAGE OR WEED. See Symplo- 
carpus fotidus. 
SLASHED. The same as Laciniate (which see). 
SLATERIA. A synonym of Ophiopogon (which 
see). 
SLIPPER FLOWER, or SLIPPERWORT. See 
Calceolaria. 
SLIPPER, LADY’S. See Cypripedium. 
SLIPPER SPURS. See Pedilanthus. 
SLIPPERWORT. See Calceolaria 
panula. 
SLIPS, PROPAGATION BY. A term used in 
reference to plant-propagation in cases where a specimen 
may be taken up and divided into several pieces, each 
of which shall have roots attached, and be capable of 
forming a plant itself when placed under the proper 
conditions. Common Box is referred to as an example 
of a plant that may be increased in almost any quantity 
- from Slips. There are many other subjects which may 
be similarly propagated. 
SLOANEA (named in honour of Sir Hans Sloane, 
born in Ireland in 1660, President of the Royal Society, 
founder of the British Museum and the Chelsea Botanic 
Garden ; he died in 1753). ORD. Tiliacee. A genus 
comprising about thirty species of stove, tropical American 
trees. Flowers racemose, panicled, or fascicled, axillary 
` or terminal, rarely solitary; sepals or calyx lobes four 
_ or five, valvate, rarely coalescing ; petals absent, or very 
rarely one to four, sepaloid ; stamens numerons. Leaves 
alternate or sub-opposite, entire or toothed, penninerved. 
The two species introduced are fine trees, with large 
leaves. A compost of loam and peat is most suitable. 
Propagated by cuttings of ripened wood, inserted in 
sand, under a glass, in heat. 
S. dentata (toothed). /. white, large. August to Nov Š 
i. n, sa g y toothed; stipules Pianta i. 
and Cam- 
S. sinemariensis (Sinemaria). . white, small; racem il- 
lary. July and August. l roundish-ovate, entire, ft long. . 
stipules long, acuminated, deciduous. +. 50ft. 1820. : 
SLOE. See Prunus spinosa. 
SLOPES. In gardening, any piece of land on an 
inclined plane may be called a Slope; but the term 
is most generally used in reference to lawns when they 
are naturally or artificially undulated. Grass or lawn 
Slopes have to be laid ont much in accordance with 
the space they occupy, and the disposition of the land 
above and below them. In forming Slopes, the land 
should be made equally firm throughout, to prevent one 
part subsiding more than another after the work is 
finished; a practised eye is one of the principal helps 
in rendering the surface and incline uniform. When 
alterations are in progress, the formation of a Slope often 
saves an immense amount of work, by utilising spare soil 
or forming an undulating surface of that naturally placed, 
instead of carting it away. Gardens situated on sloping 
ground have an advantage in being more readily drained 
than if they were on the level, they are also much 
better situated, provided the aspect is favourable for ex- 
posure to the sun. 
SLOW-MATCH TREE. A common name for 
Careya arborea. 
SLUGS. These molluscs are only too well known to 
everyone, because of the injury done by them to almost - 
all kinds of garden produce. They are especially partial 
to young, newly-opened leaves of salad plants, e.g., 
Lettuce; but they also eat holes in Carrots, Turnips, 
and other fleshy roots, and are frequently very trouble- 
some among flowers, not only in borders, but also when 
potted. Slugs are far less frequently seen than might 
be expected from their extreme abundance, because of 
their habit of living concealed, during dry weather, by 
day, and coming out only after a shower, or at night. 
Several species are very common. The more important 
and destructive of these are the following: Arion ater, 
the Black Slug, is usually more common by roadsides 
and in waste places than in gardens; this animal is 
usually black, though sometimes reddish, but its form 
and general aspect are easily recognised, whatever the 
colour. A. hortensis, the Garden Slug, is also common, 
but is smaller and more slender, and shows grey stripes ` 
lengthwise. Limax maximus is our largest Slug, some 
specimens being 6in. long when stretched out. This 
species, when full grown, is easily known by its size, 
but is not abundant anywhere, though more common 
than it seems. It is spotted and streaked with black. 
L. flavus, the Yellow Slug, and D. agrestis, the Field 
Slug, are very common all over the country; and 
L. arborum, the Tree Slug, and L. Sowerbii, the Keeled 
Slug, are plentiful in some parts of Britain. In all the 
Slugs of the genera Arion and Limaz, the body seems 
quite naked, the shell being reduced to a small, useless 
vestige, inclosed in the swollen part in front, known as 
the mantle. By all of them, in common with most 
molluses, the tongue is used for cutting their food; it 
is a long belt, or riband, bearing cross rows of small, 
horny teeth; as these are worn away on the front of 
the riband, it is renewed by growth behind. The 
number and forms of the teeth, and the development of 
the shell, are of great use in distinguishing the species 
of Slugs. They all move about by means of contractions 
and elongations of the broad, flat, lower surface, or foot. 
Remedies. Among the most effectual are baits, such as 
cabbage or lettuce leaves, hollowed slices of apples, carrots, 
potatoes, or turnips, laid near the plants that peculiarly 
need protection. These traps should be frequently exa- 
mined, and the Slugs knocked off into ammoniacal 
solution, e.g., gas-water; or they may be covered with 
quicklime, or with wood-ashes, salt, or soot. All these 
latter applications require to be repeated once at least, 
as the Slugs resist their action by throwing out a thick 
coat of slime, from which they can crawl out not much 
the worse; but they seem unable to repeat this operation 
