248 glenxy's handbook 



SELAGO. [Verbenaccje.] Pretty soft-wooded green- 

 bouse shrubs of easy culture, growiiin- freely from cuttings 

 planted in sand, and placed in a hotbed, and thriving in a 

 light open compost of turfy peat and loam. The best are S. 

 distfuis, pale lilac, and S. Gillii, rose, all summer. 



SEMPERVIVUM. Houseleek. [Crassulacese.] A 

 genus of succulents, related to Sedum, comprising many 

 species of shrubby habit, requiring a greenhouse, and some 

 few hardy and frame perennials. The greenhouse shrubby 

 sorts are distinct, and worth growing in a collection of 

 succulents : they differ in the form and arrangement of their 

 leaves, and in their habit of growth. Of S. arhoreum there 

 is a variety which has the leaves tinged constantly with dark 

 purple. 8. arhoreum and S. Youngiammi belong to a small 

 group to which the name /Eoniuin is sometimes applied. 

 These kinds multiply from cuttings of the branches, or by 

 the leaves, dried a little before planting. The plants should 

 be grown in sandy loam, and require to be kept in the green- 

 house, sheltered from frost. The hardy herbaceous kinds 

 grow in ordinary garden soil, flourishing most where the 

 situation is rather dry than otherwise. Increased by division. 



SENECIO. Gkoundsel. [Compositae.] An extensive 

 genus of composite plants, of which the most popular are the 

 Cinerarias. The hardy herbaceous kinds are of little im- 

 portance. S. elegans is an annual, requiring to be sown in 

 the open border in the month of April, and again in June for 

 a succession. The double-flowered varieties, which are very 

 handsome, may be multiplied by cuttings, and treated as 

 perennial sub-shrubs. The cuttings are struck in July or 

 August, and removed at once into small pots : they are kept 

 in cold frames until there is no danger from frost, when it is 

 customary to remove them to the shelves near the glass in 

 the greenhouse. If for blooming in pots they are shifted on 

 like Cinerarias ; but if for planting out in the flower garden, 

 where they make admirable beds, they may stand in the 

 small pots till March, and then be removed into pots two 

 sizes larger, in which they remain until they are planted out 

 in the beginning of June, by which time they will be in 

 flower. The young plants should be freely topped during 

 autumn and winter and the early spring, to make them 



