SAMBUCUS SANTOLINA 497 



marked its great beauty there. But if we are denied too frequently its 

 attractive fruits, it has on the other hand sported into a number of coloured 

 and cut-leaved forms, which are amongst the best of their particular class, 

 and thrive well. The names and average characters of the cut-leaved forms 

 are given below, but they run so much into each other that no strict 

 distinctions can be drawn between them. Var. plumosa is the least divided, 

 var. tenuifolia the most divided ; the rest are intermediate. 



Var. LACINIATA. Leaflets deeply and pinnately lobed ; the lobes linear, 

 pointed, not more than ^ in. \vide. 



Var. PLUMOSA. Leaflets up to 5 ins. long and ij ins. wide, the teeth 

 reaching half-way to the midrib. Var. PLUMOSA AUREA, sent out by Messrs 

 Wezelenburg in 1895, is a wholly golden yellow form of this variety, and one 

 of the most attractive of golden-leaved shrubs. 



Var. PURPUREA, Sweet. Petals rose-coloured on the back. 



Var. SERRATIFOLIA, var. ORNATA, and Var. PTERIDIFOLIA are all inter- 

 mediate in manner of leaf-cutting between laciniata and plumosa. 



Var. SPECTABILIS. Flowers nearly pure white. 



Var. TENUIFOLIA. Leaflets divided quite to the midrib into long narrow 

 segments, often doubly pinnate. A very handsome and graceful shrub with 

 fern-like foliage. 



SANTOLINA. COMPOSITE. 



Two species of Santolina are not uncommon in cultivation. They 

 are plants with semi-woody stems, strong-scented when crushed, and with 

 yellow flower-heads composed of very numerous small florets, and without 

 the ray florets common to so many plants of this Order. They are of very 

 easy cultivation, growing best in full sun in any soil that is well drained 

 and not too rich. Cuttings taken about July, put in pots of sandy soil 

 and placed in heat, root in a few days. Both of them are seen at their 

 best in a comparatively young state, and are apt to become shabby with 

 age. S. Chamrecyparissus is valuable for planting in masses on the front 

 of a shrubbery, both for its whiteness and for its abundant blossom. 



S. CHAM^CYPARISSUS, Linnceus. LAVENDER COTTON. 



(S. incana, Lamarck?) 



A white bush, i to 2 ft. high in this country, forming a close, leafy mass ; 

 foliage persistent ; stems semi-woody, covered the first season with a thick 

 white felt. Leaves alternate, very crowded on the shoots, the largest I to 

 i^ ins. long, with clusters of shorter ones in their axils ; all very narrow 

 (f in. or less wide), and furnished with thick teeth or projections set in rows 

 of about four. The whole leaf is clothed with a white felt. Flower-heads 

 bright yellow, \ to f in. across, hemispherical, solitary at the end of an erect, 

 slender stalk 4 to 6 ins. long, terminating short lateral twigs of the year. 

 There are no ray florets. 



Native of the Mediterranean region ; cultivated in Britain since the 

 middle of the sixteenth century. It is a beautiful and interesting plant, 

 probably the whitest of all hardy shrubs, and bears its showy flower-heads in 

 July so thickly that they almost touch. The plant has a rather agreeable 

 odour when lightly rubbed, but this becomes too strong and acrid to be 

 wholly pleasant when the leaves are crushed. Formerly used in medicine as 



