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SEQUOIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. SHAMROCK. 



S. TANGUTICUS. A new kind from 

 China, with stout spiry stems of 6 or 

 7 feet, and bold leaves cut into irregular 

 lobes. The yellow flowers are small, 

 appearing in "autumn, when the general 

 effect of the plant is bold and pleasing, 

 growing apart on the lawn or in the wild 

 garden. S. Veitchianus and S. Wilsoni 

 are new Chinese species of bold habit well 

 suited to w-aterside gardening or woodland. 



SEQUOIA. Enormous cone-bearing 

 evergreen trees of the Pacific coast of 

 N. America, just hardy enough to 

 be the object of numerous experiments 

 in our country, far from successful 

 either from an artistic or most other 

 points of view. In some of the books 

 it is said that these great trees are 

 readily propagated by cuttings inserted 

 under glass in autumn, but we would 

 beg everybody never to plant any 

 tree of the kind except from seed. 



S. GIGANTEA (Big Tree). A colossal tree 

 in its own country, inhabiting mostly, in 

 scattered groups or groves, the Californian 

 Mountains for a distance of over 250 miles 

 in length, existing trees being over 300 

 feet high. No tree ever introduced has 

 excited so much interest or been the sub- 

 ject of so much costly experiment in this 

 country. It succeeds well in various dis- 

 tricts, but is badly treated as " set out " 

 in the " specimen " way. The right way 

 is to plant it forest fashion say at 5 feet 

 apart with Larch between, to be cut out 

 in due time, the big tree to be thinned as 

 the years went. Syn., Wellingtonia gigan- 

 tea. 



S. SEMPERVIRENS (Red Wood). A noble 

 evergreen tree, thriving somewhat better 

 in our country than the Big Tree, but, 

 planted as it usually is by itself, it is often 

 torn about by sleet storms in our climate, 

 which is so very different from that of 

 its native country. Still it grows rapidly 

 in good free soils, and is worth trying 

 grown in a wood or grove so that the 

 trees may shelter each other. Sheltering 

 groves or woods of it would give good 

 timber in quiek time, as it is a very rapid 

 grower. Coast range of W. America. 

 Syn., Taxodium sempervirens. 



SERAPIAS. Terrestrial Orchids 

 from S. Europe, worthy of a place 

 among hardy Orchids, as the flowers 

 are singular and in some kinds beauti- 

 ful, as S. cordigera, with large showy 

 flowers, chiefly of a blood-red colour ; 

 S. lingua, with peculiar brownish- 

 purple flowers ; and 5. longipetala, 

 with large rosy-red flowers. These are 

 all 9 to 12 inches high, and their 

 flowers are densely arranged on broad 

 erect stems. The plants succeed best 

 in a soil composed of two parts of peat, 



one of loam, and one of sand and leaf- 

 mould. The position should be par- 

 tially shaded and well sheltered. 



SERRATULA ATRIPLICIFOLIA. 



To gardeners the plants of this genus 

 were previously without interest, but 

 in this new plant from C. China we 

 seem to have a hardy perennial of 

 some value. It is a bold plant, stand- 

 ing rigidly erect to a height of 5 or 

 6 feet, with large heart-shaped leaves 

 and purple Thistle-like flower heads, 

 wrapped in overlapping bracts. They 

 expand in early autumn, but are 

 formed long before they open, and a 

 pretty feature of the buds is a fine 

 network of silky- white threads. 



SESELI (Gum Seseli). 5. gunimi- 

 ferum is a handsome plant, i \ to 3 feet 

 high, with elegantly-divided leaves of 

 a glaucous or almost silvery tone. 

 Though a biennial, it is so distinct 

 that some may like to grow it. The 

 best position for it is on dry and sunny 

 banks, or in raised beds or borders. 

 5. glauca is also cultivated for its 

 graceful white foliage and curious 

 heads of flowers. 



SHAMROCK. This little plant is 

 often grown in gardens through its 

 associations, but as several totally 

 different plants do duty for the 

 Shamrock, the following note by 

 Mr Hemsley of Kew may be of in- 

 terest : 



' ' The plant commonly sold at Co vent 

 Garden as Shamrock is Tr if oil ion 

 minus, a small yellow-flowered Clover, 

 and the same plant is now in use as 

 such in Ireland in the counties of 

 Antrim, Down, Meath, Fermanagh, 

 Dublin, Wicklow, Carlow, Westmeath, 

 Wexford, Limerick, Waterford, Cork, 

 and Kerry. This plant, therefore, so 

 far as present usage is concerned, has 

 the greatest claim to the name of true 

 Shamrock. Black Medick (Medicagp 

 lupulina], a very similar plant, is 

 sometimes substituted for the Clover, 

 from which it may be distinguished 

 by the leaflets being rounded, not 

 notched, at the top, and by the tiny 

 pod being twisted. The common red 

 Clover (Trifolium pratense), the white 

 Clover (T. repens), and the Wood 

 Sorrel are other plants more or less 

 known and used as Shamrock. Occa- 

 sionally one or the other of the plants 

 named produces leaves having four 

 leaflets, then called the four-leaved 

 Shamrock." 



