AND GENEKAL HOKTICULTURE. 



415 



SIP 



flowers, among which is S. bicolor (syn. Lo- 

 belia laxiflora angustifolia), a well-known 

 species. They are propagated by cuttings. 

 Introduced in 1842. 



Sipho'nia. From siphon, a tube or pipe ; the 

 use made of the exudation, which constitutes 

 India Rubber. Nat. Ord. Eiiphorbiacece. 



S. Brasilienis, an evergreen tree indige- 

 nous to tropical South America, is the most 

 remarkable species of the genus. It is to 

 this tree that we are indebted for the greater 

 part of our supply of Caoutchouc or India 

 Rubber. It is a native of French Guiana, and 

 attains a height of seventj^-five feet, rarely a 

 hundred. The mode in which the rubber is 

 obtained by the natives, is by making incis- 

 ions through the bark of the lower part of the 

 trunk of the tree, from which the sap, which 

 is a fluid rosin, issues in great abundance, ap- 

 pearing of a milky whiteness as it flows into 

 the vessel prepared to receive it. On expos- 

 ure to the air, this milky juice gradually 

 thickens into a soft, reddish, elastic rosin. 

 This substance is poured into a mould, in 

 small quantities at first, and is then exposed 

 to a dense smoke, produced by the burning of 

 nuts from sevei-al of the Palms, until it is 

 suflBciently hard to bear another coat, when 

 the process is I'epeated, until the mass is of 

 a convenient size to handle for shipment. 

 There are several other species of this genus 

 that yield large quantities of rubber, com- 

 mon from Central America to Brazil. The 

 first discovery of this valuable tree and its 

 uses Avas made by M. de la Condamine in 

 1736, but it is only within the last fifty years 

 that it has become an important article of 

 commerce. Ficus elastica also produces the 

 India Rubber of commerce, and is the best 

 known of the rubber-producing trees, in con- 

 sequence of being largely grown under glass 

 for ornamental purposes (syn. Hevea). 



Sisy'mbrium. Hedge Mustard. Nat. Ord. Cru- 



cifer(E. 



A genus of hardy annual or biennial herbs 

 of but little interest. It comprises some 

 eighty species, natives chiefly of the temper- 

 ate and cold regions of the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere. S. millefolium, a perennial species, 

 has elegant feathery foliage of a whitish 

 color, and small yellow flowers. It grows 

 well in any light soil. 



Sisyri'nchium. Rush Lily, Satin Flower. Blue- 

 eyed Grass. From sys, a pig, and rynchos, a 

 snout ; so called on account of the fondness 

 that swine have for the roots. Nat. Ord. 

 Iridace^je. 



A large genus of hardy, or half-hardy, per- 

 ennial plants with fibrous roots ; natives of 

 tropical and North America. S. grandiftorum 

 and its variety, S. g. album, is a beautiful per- 

 ennial species that flowers early in spring, 

 and is the only one worthy of general culture. 

 The foliage is narrow and grass-like ; the 

 flowers, which are produced on slender stems 

 six to twelve inches high, are bell-shaped and 

 drooping, of a rich, deep purple in the typi- 

 cal plant, and of a pure, transparent white- 

 ness in the variety. They form charming 

 groups in the rock-garden in light, peaty or 

 sandy soil in warm positions. They may be 

 increased by careful division in fall, and are 

 the better of some protection during winter. 

 S. Bermudiana or Blue-eyed Grass, our na- 



SKI 



tive species, is very common in damp, cool 

 meadows throughout the United States. The 

 flowers are small, of a delicate blue, turning 

 to purplish, and the plant, when out of flower, 

 resembles a tuft of low-growing, coarse grass. 



Sitolo'bium. A small genus of Ferns now in- 

 cluded under Dicteonia, by many authorities. 



Si'um. Skirret. From the Celtic Siw, water, 

 the habitat of most of the species. Nat. Ord. 

 UmbellifercB. 



S. sisarum, the only useful and cultivated 

 species, is a handsome perennial plant, indig- 

 enous to China and Japan, is popularly known 

 as Skirret, and to some extent used as a vege- 

 table. The roots, which are the parts used, 

 are composed of sevei-al prongs, about the 

 thickness of a finger, joined together at the 

 top ; these are boiled and afterwards served 

 in the same way as those of Salsify and Scor- 

 zonera. The plants are best grown from 

 seed, and require a wet soil to succeed well. 

 This species is placed by Hooker and Ben- 

 tham under Pimpinella, but is best known as 

 above. 



Ski'mmia. From Skimmi, a Japanese word 

 signifying a hurtful fruit. Nat. Ord. Rutacece. 

 A genus of half hardy, evergreen shrubs, 

 natives of Japan and northern India. The 

 species known as S. Japonica is a pretty, 

 dwarf-growing, holly-like shrub, with dark, 

 shining, evergreen, entire, flat leaves, and 

 clusters of bright red berries, which give the 

 plant a very handsome appearance. Dr. 

 Masters ("Gardener's Chronicle," April, 1889), 

 after studying up the various Skimmias grown 

 in English gardens, finds thai much confu- 

 sion has existed among botanists and culti- 

 vators about these plants, and that the plant 

 universally known as S. Japonica is not that 

 species at all, and that it is not even known 

 to belong to Japan, but that the plant de- 

 scribed as S. oblata is the true S. Japonica 

 of Thunberg and of Siebold and Zuccarini, 

 or rather the female of that species, in which 

 male and female fiowers are separated on dif- 

 ferent individuals. The S. Japonica of gar- 

 dens, so considered by Lindley, with whom 

 all this confusion originated, and afterward 

 by Sir W. Hooker, when it was first intro- 

 duced by Fortune from China, in 1849, Dr. 

 Masters now first properly distinguishes 

 under the new name of S. Fortunei. This is 

 the common species in cultivation. Dr. 

 Masters calls attention to the interesting 

 facts that this plant is not represented by 

 wild specimens in herbaria, and that its Chi- 

 nese origin rests upon Fortune's own state- 

 ments with regard to it, which he says have 

 been generally overlooked, although pub- 

 lished in the "Gardener's Chronicle" for 1852, p. 

 739, from which it appears that Fortune found 

 this plant in a nursery-garden at Shanghai, to 

 which he was told it had been brought from a 

 high mountain in the interior called " Nang 

 Shang." It is certainly both interesting and 

 curious that nothing more definite is known 

 of the origin of a plant which has become one 

 of the most popular and universally used 

 evergreen shrubs of English gardens. S. 

 Foremani is a new form just introduced (1889) 

 by the raiser for whom it is named. It is de- 

 rived from S. oblata, fertilized with the pollen 

 of S. fragrans. It is free-growing, and when 

 covered with its bright scarlet fruits is 



