312 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



[PART II. 



than that plant, and remains much longer 

 in bloom. 



Of other cultivated Squills, the British 

 ones, S. verna and S. autumnalis, are 

 worthy of cultivation in collections ; the 

 plant usually sold by the Dutch and by 

 our seedsmen as S. hyacinthoides is gener- 

 ally S. campanulata, and occasionally 

 S. patula. The true S. hyacinthoides of 

 Southern Europe is scarcely worthy of 

 cultivation ; 8. cernua is not sufficiently 

 distinct from S. patula, and one or two 

 southern species allied to S. peruviana 

 have not been proved sufficiently hardy 

 for general cultivation. 



SCIRPUS (Bulrush). Sedge-like 

 plants, useful for fringing the margins 

 of ponds, which too often present a bare 

 hard line. There are native species 

 that might be transplanted, and the 

 best are S. triqueter, S. afro-virens, 

 and S. lacustrls. The true Bulrush 

 is 3 to 8 feet high, and is effective on 

 the margins of ponds or streams, 

 associated with other tall aquatic 

 plants. 



SCUTELLARIA (Skull-cap). Per- 

 ennials of the Sage order, some of 

 interest for the rock-garden. All the 

 kinds may be grown in open loam, the 

 low-growing kinds submit readily to 

 division of the root-stock, and, if need 

 be, the plants are increased by cut- 

 tings of the young shoots, by seeds. 



Scutellaria alpina (Alpine Scull-cap). 

 A spreading plant, vigorous but neat in 

 habit, and pretty in nower. The pube- 

 scent stems are prostrate, but so abundantly 

 produced that they rise into a full round 

 tuft, a foot high or more in the centre, 

 and falling low to the sides ; the flowers 

 in terminal heads, purplish, or with the 

 lower lip white or yellow. The form 

 with the upper lip purplish, and lower 

 pure white, is pretty. The variety lutea 

 (S. lupulina) is an ornamental kind, with 

 yellow flowers. Increased by division, 

 and Howering freely in summer. Alps of 

 Europe. 



S. macrantha. A native of 



Asia, has purplish-blue flowers, the blossoms 

 1^ inch long. The plant attains to a foot 

 or more high, and may figure in the rock- 

 garden among the more free-growing 

 plants. The plant possesses a firm, woody 

 root-stock, and is hardy. 



Scutellaria indica is of dwarf growth, 

 with creeping stems, the flowers blue or 

 bluish lilac, and, though small when 

 compared with those of macrantha, it is 

 still worth growing among rock plants. 



Other kinds in cultivation are Orientalis, 

 altaica, parvula, grandiflora, though, for 

 the most part, these are not frequently 

 seen beyond the limits of botanic gardens. 



Scutellaria indica. 



SEDUM (Stonecrop). Usually dwarf 

 spreading rock perennials, with thick 

 succulent leaves, which enable them to 

 endure drought in the most arid 

 places. They are often pretty in 

 effect in Nature, but, owing to the 

 dotting and labelling system in 

 gardens, we lose more than half their 

 beauty. In a great number of species 

 are many similar in effect, and no 

 need, therefore, to grow all, as they 

 are not all equally valuable from a 

 garden point of view. In the poorer 

 parts of the rock-garden they are use- 

 ful, and if we cannot find room for 

 them in it, they do very well on the 

 gravel paths near. They are, perhaps, 

 of all plants, the easiest to cultivate 

 and increase, the smaller species being 

 protected from coarse-growing plants, 



