SHEFFIELDIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. SIDALCEA. 



SHEFFIELDIA. 5. repens is a 

 hardy little New Zealand creeper, with 

 small leaves, small slender stems, and 

 tiny white flowers which appear in 

 summer. It is interesting for the rock 

 garden, and grows in any good well- 

 drained soil. 



SHEPHERDIA. A small group of 

 American shrubs, grown for their 

 bright silvery foliage, the flowers being 

 inconspicuous, though one kind bears [ 

 an excellent fruit. All are hardy and 

 of easy culture, resisting cold and 

 drought even on dry banks where few 

 other plants can exist. S. canadensis 

 is excellent in this way, reaching a 

 height of 6 to 8 feet, with oval green 

 leaves, reddish underneath, and small 

 red or yellow berries. 5. argentea, the 

 Buffalo Berry, is a taller shrub of 

 nearly 20 feet, with thorny stems, 

 silvery leaves, and juicy red or yellow 

 berries, prized for jellies and preserves 

 by the Western colonists. 5. rotundi- 

 folius is an evergreen kind with silvery 

 leaves, from Utah. 



SHORTIA. S. galacifolia is an in- 

 teresting and beautiful plant, first dis- 

 covered over a hundred years ago by i 

 Michaux in the mountains of N. ' 

 Carolina, and rediscovered in 1877. It 

 was found growing with Galax aphylla, 

 and forms runners like that plant, and 

 is propagated by this means. The 

 plant is of tufted habit, the flowers 

 reminding one of those of a Soldanella, 

 but large, with cut edges to the seg- 

 ments, like a frill, and pure white, 

 passing to rose as they get older. 

 There is now a pretty variety in which 

 the flowers are of a delicate pink from 

 the very first, and plants with semi- 

 double flowers also occur. There is 

 much beauty in the leaves, which are of 

 rather oval shape, deep green, tinged 

 with brownish - crimson, changing in 

 winter to quite a crimson, when it forms 

 a bright bit of colour in the rock garden 

 or border. A correspondent, writing 

 in The Garden, says: "The cultural' 

 directions given in catalogues to keep 

 the plant in a shady situation and 

 grow it in Sphagnum and peat deprive 

 us of its chief charm i.e., the hand- 

 some-coloured leaves during the winter 

 and spring months. Instead of choos- 

 ing a shady spot I selected a fully 

 exposed .one, and here two plants have 

 been for over a year, one in peat and 

 the other in sandy loam. Both are 

 vigorous." It succeeds well in various 

 soils, as described, and is hardy. It 

 is also a delightful plant in a pot, as 



the flowers on their crimson stems are 

 pretty, and one gets also the prettily 

 tinted leaves. North America. A 

 new species, S. uni flora, has recently 

 come to us from Japan, but is still rare. 

 While not unlike the American plant, 

 this differs from it in having larger 

 flowers, broader and more prostrate 

 leaves, and shorter flower-stems, some 

 of the flowers hardly rising above the 

 leaves, which turn a fine crimson from 

 August to the following spring. The 

 plant thrives in a mixture of peat and 

 loam, in full sun, and is fully hardy. 

 5. u. grandi flora is the finest of all. 



Shortia unijlora 



SIBTHORPIA (Moneywort]. S. 

 europcea is a little native creeper with 

 slender stems and tiny round leaves. 

 In summer it forms a dense carpet on 

 moist soil, and should always be grown 

 in the bog garden or moist ferneries. 

 A native plant in the southern coun- 

 ties. Shady banks and ditches suit it. 



SIDA. 5. dioica and S. Napcea are 

 stout vigorous plants with ample 

 foliage, and suitable chiefly for the 

 wild garden and shrubbery borders. 



SIDALCEA (Greek Mallow}. A 

 group of graceful herbs from North 

 West America, with showy white, pink, 

 or purple flowers in long erect spikes like 

 a miniature Hollyhock. Those in culti- 

 vation are perennials, but do best if 

 frequently renewed from seed sown as 

 soon as ripe, the seedlings being win- 

 tered in a frame, and planted out in 

 spring. In sheltered places and in 

 warm soils these plants will pass the 

 winter in the open, but they prove a 

 little tender in many places, and the 

 autumn-sown plants bloom earlier and 

 more finely than those raised in heat 

 early in the year. The Sidalceas are 

 fast becoming better known, and, being 

 profuse in flower, excellent for cutting, 



