740 SYMPHORICARPUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. SVRINGA. 



fruit is said to be a brilliant blue. It 

 has been little tried in our country 

 as yet. 



SYMPHORICARPUS (Snowbeny). 

 The common Snowberry (S. racemosus) 

 is a familiar shrub, but we would 

 exclude it from a choice selection ; 

 also the Wolf Berry (S. occidentalis) , 

 and 5. vulgaris, the Coral Berry, or 

 Indian Currant, which has small pur- 

 plish berries in clusters. The flowers 

 of these kinds are not showy, their 

 growth is coarse, and they smother 

 choicer things. Their chief value is 

 for undergrowth in woods, or for orna- 

 mental covert (as birds eat the berries) , 

 and they will flourish anywhere. If 

 admitted to the garden the clumps 

 should be cut to the ground every 

 spring to encourage young free-flower- 

 ing shoots, and the roots trimmed 

 deeply with a spade to prevent their 

 spreading unduly. 



SYMPHYANDRA. Campanula-like 

 plants of not high rank, 5. pendula 

 from the rocky parts of the Caucasus, 

 having branched pendulous stems and 

 large cream-coloured bell flowers, 

 almost hidden in the leaves. It is 

 hardy, and rarely more than i foot in 

 height. It does well with other Bell- 

 flowers, but is best seen at the level of 

 the eye in the rock garden ; it is also 

 a good border plant in ordinary garden 

 soil. Seed. The Austrian 5. Wanner i 

 rarely exceeds 6 inches in height, with 

 deep mauve flowers borne freely on 

 branching racemes. Like 5. pendula, 

 it prefers a light, warm, rich soil and 

 a partially-shaded situation. 5. Hof- 

 manni, from Bosnia, is considerably 

 taller than the others, with large white 

 flowers and hairy leaves. All these 

 plants are short-lived, and best re- 

 garded as of biennial duration only. 



SYMPHYTUM ( Comfrey) .Suited 

 for naturalising in open sunny places, 

 and, when well grown in masses, their 

 foliage has a fine effect. The largest 

 and best kinds for the wild garden are 

 5. asperrimum and 5. caucasicum. 

 The Bohemian Comfrey (S. bohemicum] 

 is a handsome perennial, about i foot 

 high, with, in early summer, erect twin 

 racemes of brilliant reddish-purple 

 flowers. The variegated leaved form 

 of the common Comfrey (5. officinale] 

 has striking variegation, effective in a 

 garden of hardy flowers, and thriving 

 in any soil. 



SYNTHYRIS. A group of hardy 

 little herbs from the Rocky Mountains, 



allied to Wulfenia, and forming neat 

 tufts of elegant foliage with dense 

 spikes of blue, purple, or white flowers. 

 The best is 5. reniformis, with tough, 

 prettily-cut leaves, and spikes of bluish- 

 purple flowers a foot high. These come 

 in early spring or sometimes even in 

 autumn, and the plant does best in a 

 cool, shady place with free soil. 



SYRINGA (Lilac). Where these 

 lovely shrubs are well grown they 

 afford beautiful effects in the home 

 landscape as well as fragrance. To no 

 family has the harm done by grafting 

 been more injurious than to the Lilac, 

 when grafted on Privet for the sake of 

 cheapness and increase. I lost ten 

 years through a grafted collection ; 

 instead of growing up, the plants grew 

 down and slowly perished. And so it 

 has been in many gardens where Lilacs 

 have been planted but rarely show 

 their value, though so many superb 

 varieties have been raised of recent 

 years. 



To secure the full value of the 

 varieties that we now have, with their 

 long racemes beautiful in colour if only 

 well grown, the first thing is to insist 

 that none shall be grafted on the Privet. 

 As to arrangement, the best way is to 

 group our Lilacs in the sun : they are 

 too often put away among mixed 

 shrubs, where they deteriorate, owing 

 to crowding. 



Few shrubs are better worth pruning, 

 without which they become a tangled 

 mass of shoots, and we do not get the 

 fine full thyrses of bloom that are seen 

 in French gardens. On fading, the 

 flowers should be removed, and the 

 small and weak shoots also, if the plants 

 are too " stalky," the aim being to 

 secure healthy and open growth during 

 summer. Cutting back in winter is 

 wrong, because the flowers are pro- 

 duced on the wood of the previous 

 year, and cutting back to a stiff ugly 

 outline does not deserve the name of 

 pruning. To prune is to help the 

 natural shape of the bush and let the 

 light into it, so that it can concentrate 

 its energy on a number of strong 

 flowering shoots. 



We read sometimes that the Lilac 

 will do in any soil, and so it may in 

 districts where the soil is warm and 

 good, as in much of Ireland, where the 

 Rouen Lilac (commonly called the 

 Persian) makes such lovely trees. 

 Cold places in valleys are not so good 

 for them, especially where heavy soil 

 occurs, because being early the bloom 



