SCOLOPENDRIUM. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



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loam, good sharp sand being added, to- 

 gether with broken oyster-shells or lime- 

 stone. Scolopendriums should be associ- 

 ated with Lastreas, Polystichums, and 

 Lady Ferns, or be placed in groups on 

 the rock-garden with some flowering plant 

 that will thrive in the same spot. During 

 hot dusty weather in summer a daily 

 afternoon syringing will much refresh and 

 invigorate the plants. All the Hart's- 

 tongues thrive in pots, and are useful for 

 rooms and tables. The easiest means of 

 increase for the varieties of S. viilga7'e is 

 by division, for though they come readily 

 from seed, the seedlings are often quite 

 unlike the parent. 



No fewer than 400 varieties of the 

 Hart's-tongue were described thirty years 

 ago, and since then this number has been 

 much increased. Most of these, however, 

 are deformities — vegetable cripples, so to 

 speak. A few of the characteristic forms 

 of each group might be used where 

 collections of hardy Ferns are being 

 formed, being evergreen and diversified in 

 form. Of the following selection, com- 

 mencing with simple forms and ending with 

 much-divided ones, S. latifoliiini is a fine 

 bold variety, having wavy spreading fronds, 

 8 to 10 in. long and 2 to 3 in. broad. S. 

 refii forme has oblong, roundish, or kidney- 

 shaped fronds. ^. cornutuiii is interest- 

 ing, the point of the frond being prolonged 

 into a horn-like appendage. S. iiiargina- 

 tu/n is very distinct, with fronds crenated 

 at the margin. Some of the best forms of 

 .S. pin7iatifidum are attractive, and S. 

 crispum is an old favourite, its fronds 

 retaining the habit of the type, but the 

 margin is frilled. A form of it called 

 grandidens has the margin deeply incised. 

 Stansfieldi has curled incisions, and 

 Wrigleyi is a luxuriant form with erect 

 fronds upwards of 3 ft. in length. S. 

 laceraium has broad flat fronds, deeply 

 cut into lobes of variable length and 

 breadth, whilst S. sagittato-c7-istatiitn has 

 fronds with wavy margins and crested 

 lobes. S. acfochidon has a narrow frond 

 slightly widened at the base, and divided 

 at the upper end into several wedge-shaped 

 divisions, the upper margins deeply in- 

 cised. The fronds of S. patuhiin are cut 

 down near to the base into two or three 

 divisions, each having a narrow wing and 

 a broad terminal crest. S. digitatiim has 

 pleasing fronds i ft. or more in length, 

 with the divisions terminated by a forked 

 and twisted crest. S. Kelivayi is a hand- 

 some form, the fronds terminating in a 

 large crest 6 to 10 in. broad. S.ramosa- 

 tnargimifiiin resembles it in form of frond, 

 but has a broad-winged stalk. Its crest 



is nearly flat and not unlike the tasselled 

 frond-extremity of the maximum form of 

 Pieris so ru la fa crisiata. The base of the 

 frond of 5. coryrnbiferuni is like the type, 

 but the upper half has innumerable con- 

 torted and twisted incisions, and looks like 

 the leaf-ends of some of the ragged 

 Kales. S. Cooliiigi is very similar to 5. 

 coryinbifenan, but the divisions form an 

 intricate mass of slender segments, curled 

 and twisted in various ways so as to form 

 a globular head. This kind of division 

 represents the extreme form of variation. 

 There are also several prettily variegated 

 forms in cultivation. 



SCUTELLARIA {Skullcap).— Hs.rdy 

 perennials, of which several are in culti- 

 vation, but few are good garden plants. 

 These few are handsome flowers for the 

 border, and their dwarf neat growth is 

 also suited to the rock-garden in an open 

 sunny situation in any soil. S. baica- 

 Icnsis, from Siberia, is the finest of all the 

 species. It is an excellent alpine peren- 

 nial, forming a hard woody root-stock, is 

 9 in. high, and produces an abundance of 

 rich, velvety, dark blue flowers, finer in 

 colour than those of .S". japonica, though 

 this is a handsome plant. The alpine Skull- 

 cap (5. alpina) is a spreading plant with 

 all the vigour of the coarsest weeds of its 

 natural order, but neat in habit and 

 ornamental in flower. The stems are 

 prostrate, but so abundant that they rise 

 in a full round tuft, i ft. or more high in 

 the centre. The leaves are ovate, roundish 

 or heart-shaped at the base, and have 

 very notched and very short stalks, while 

 the flowers are borne in terminal heads, 

 short at first, but afterwards elongating. 

 These flowers are purplish, or have the 

 lower lip white or yellow. Its forms, 

 hicolor, with the upper lip purplish and 

 the lower white, and S. lupulina, with yel- 

 low flowers, are very pretty. Pyrenees, 

 Swiss and Tyrolese Alps, and many other 

 partsof Europe and Asia. Division. These 

 kinds are admirably suited for borders, the 

 margins of shrubberies, and the rougher 

 parts of the rock-garden, flowering free 

 in summer. S. orientalis., S. scordiifolia, 

 S. alhitca, S. galericula/a, S. peregrimi, 

 and the British S. minor., an interest- 

 ing little plant for the artificial bog, are 

 among the best of the other kinds, but it 

 is doubtful if they are worth a place save 

 in a large collection. Division or seed. 



SCYPHANTHUS {Cup-Jlo7i'er).—S. 

 elegans is a beautiful slender climber, 5 to 

 8 ft. high, with forked stems, and valuable 

 for trailing over a trellis or against a wall. 

 Its leaves are deeply cut, and the flowers 

 come singly in the forks of the branches. 



