SKIMMIA SMILAX 515 



n,ooo ft. altitude. It :s fairly hardy -at Kew, but never bears flowers or 

 fruits freely enough to justify its inclusion among first-rate evergreens. 



SMILAX. LILIACE^. 



A curious and interesting genus of usually climbing plants, both 

 herbaceous and shrubby, belonging to the lily family. Of the shrubby 

 species there are both evergreen and deciduous as well as intermediate 

 types. Leaves alternate, prominently three- to nine-ribbed, and net- 

 veined between the ribs ; from the stalks a pair of tendrils are developed 

 by means of which the slender stems are supported. Stems round or 

 angular, usually prickly, often springing from a fleshy or tuberous root- 

 stock, the sexes usually but not always on separate plants ; isolated plants 

 having been known to produce fertile seed. The flowers have little beauty, 

 and are always green or greenish. Fruit a black or red berry. 



In a monograph published in 1878, over two hundred species were 

 described, but of these a very small proportion are in cultivation. 



The chief value of the smilaxes in gardens is in producing rich, graceful 

 masses of handsome foliage. They develop thickets of stems which are 

 constantly being renewed from the base, and are happily placed when 

 they can ramble over a tree-stump or some such support. Seed is rarely 

 seen with us on many of the species, and propagation is best .effected by 

 dividing up the plants in spring. 



The popular medicine, sarsaparilla, is a product from the root of 

 various tropical American species. 



Of the following sorts, S. rotundifolia and S. hispida are the most 

 robust in my experience, but S. excelsa has also been known to make a 

 vigorous tree climber in Surrey ; and for the warmer counties, S. aspera, 

 which has a very graceful inflorescence, is to be recommended. 



S. ASPERA, LinncEus. ROUGH BINDWEED. 



An evergreen, semi-scandent plant with four- to six-angled stems and 

 zigzag branches, armed with short, stout spines. Leaves very diverse in 

 shape and size, but nearly always more or less heart-shaped at the base, and 

 prickly on the margins, sometimes on the midrib also. As seen in cultivation 

 the usual type of leaf is of a narrow, elongated, ovate shape, broadest 

 almost or quite at the base, abruptly narrowed above the base, then tapering 

 gradually to the point ; five- to nine-nerved. Sometimes the base is quite 

 straight, and the leaf an elongated triangle ; sometimes the leaf is heart- 

 shaped and nearly as broad as long. They measure from i to 4 ins. long, 

 | to 3 ins. wide; stalk spiny or unarmed, \ to I in. long. Flowers pale green, 

 fragrant, produced in terminal and axillary racemes, along which they are 

 arranged in clusters of four to seven; the racemes vary from i^ to 4 ins. long, 

 and the flower-stalk of the individual flower is jV to \ in. long. Fruit about 

 the size of a pea, red. 



Native of S. Europe, N. Africa, and the Canaries; cultivated in England 

 since the mid-seventeenth century. It is only hardy in the milder counties 

 or against a warm wall, and is usually seen in cold greenhouses, where if 

 planted out it makes a tangle of numerous stems eventually 8 or 10 ft. 



