SARCOCOCCA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. SAPONARIA. 



8. JCIORA (The Common Elder). Best 

 known in its variety aurea. Planted in a 

 mass and cut down to the ground annually 

 is a good way of growing it. There are 

 varieties, but all the others are best left 

 out of the garden. 



S RACEMOSA (Scarlet Elder) . Although 

 not a native of this country, S. racemosa 

 occurs wild throughout much of the 

 northern hemisphere. In appearance the 

 Scarlet Elder somewhat resembles our 

 own species, but is readily known by the 

 flowers expanding much earlier, and the 

 bright red berries, which ripen long in 

 advance of the Common Elder. A cool, 

 moist soil and a sunny spot seem to suit 

 the Scarlet-berried Elder the best. 



SARCOCOCCA (The Hardy Sarco- 

 coccas). Are neat and pleasing ever- 

 green shrubs possessed of but a modest 

 flower beauty, though of more than 

 ordinary value, because of their suita- 

 bility to shaded positions and their 

 rich green lustrous foliage. They 

 are also of high utility for cutting, 

 lasting long and well in the house 

 where their refreshing shining green 

 is ever welcome. The most notable 

 are 5. humilis, of neat tufted habit, 

 i feet high, flowers white, fragrant, 

 succeeded by blue-black fruits. 5. 

 niscifolia is 2 feet or more high, of 

 dark lustrous green, flowers milk- 

 white, fragrant, and vieing with the 

 Alexandrian Laurel for its utility in 

 the cut state. The special value, 

 however, is because of their success 

 when planted under trees where so 

 few plants thrive. They grow from 

 the base after the style of the Butcher's 

 Broom. Readily increased. China. 



SAMOLUS. S. littoralis is a pretty 

 trailing plant, with long slender stems, 

 small evergreen foliage, and numerous 

 pink blossoms in summer. It thrives 

 in the bog garden or moist spots in the 

 rock garden in a peaty soil. New 

 Zealand. 



S ANGUINARIA ( Bloodroot) . S. 

 canadensis is a pretty and distinct 

 hardy plant, its thick creeping root- 

 stocks sending up glaucous leaves about 

 6 inches high ; the flowers, borne singly 

 on stems as high as the leaves, are 

 i inch across, white, with a tassel of 

 yellow stamens in spring, in good-sized 

 tufts, having a pretty effect. Some- 

 times the flowers are pinkish. It is 

 strongest and best in moist peaty 

 bottoms in woods or shrubberies. It 

 may be increased by division in 

 autumn, but its fleshy stems must not 

 be kept long out of the ground. Poppy 

 family. Nova Scotia, Canada, and 



I westwards and southwards on the 

 ! mountains. 



SANTOLINA (Lavender Cotton}. 

 Dwarf, half-shrubby plants, of neat 

 habit and pretty hoary foliage. One 

 of the most distinct and useful of them 

 is S. incana, a small grey shrub, with 

 close habit and narrow leaves covered 

 with dense white down. The pale 

 greenish-yellow flowers are small, not 

 showy, but the plant is useful from its 

 form and silvery hue for groups and 

 edgings, growing readily in ordinary 

 soil on the level border or on slopes of 

 the rock garden. Other species of 

 Santolina suited for rock gardens are 

 S. pectinata and 5. viridis, which form 

 bushes something like the Lavender 

 Cotton. 5. alpina is of more alpine 

 habit, forming dense tufts close to the 

 ground, from these arising slender 

 stems bearing yellow button-like 

 flowers. It grows in any soil, and 

 may be used in the less important 

 parts of the rock garden. Division. 

 Cuttings of the shrubby species. 



SANVITALIA. 5. procumbent is a 

 hardy annual from Mexico, with trail- 

 ing branches and bright yellow flowers. 

 In the single-flowered kind the blos- 

 soms have a dark purple centre, but 

 in the double (5. procumbens fl.-pl.}, 

 which is by far the showier, they 

 are a bright yellow. 5. procumbens 

 flowers from July till late in Septem- 

 ber, and owing to its dwarf compact 

 growth it is useful for masses in beds 

 or for the front rows of borders, or 

 in suspended baskets, as the slender 

 branches droop gracefully over. It 

 may be sown in any ordinary garden 

 soil in autumn for spring flowering, 

 or in March and April for summer 

 flowering. 



SAPONARIA (Soapwort}. Perennial 

 herbs and alpine plants or annuals of 

 the pink family. 



S. C^ESPITOSA. A neat little alpine 

 perennial, good in the higher regions of 

 the C. and E. Pyrenees, flowering in 

 August, but in the lowlands its beautiful 

 rose-coloured blossoms appear towards the 

 end of June. It forms rosettes of linear 

 leaves, thick, glabrous ; the flowers, form- 

 ing a thick cluster, are supported by short 

 stout stems. This graceful little plant is 

 valuable for the rock garden. A sandy 

 soil suits it best, and it endures our 

 winters. 



S. CALABRICA. A prostrate hardy an- 

 nual, 6 to 9 inches high, its slender stems 

 covered with small pink blossoms all the 

 summer. Seeds may be sown in the open 



