442 



THE DICTIONARY OF GARDENING, 



Skirret continued. 



of Skirret. The roots may be used from the end of 

 September onwards, through the winter; before growth 

 commences in spring, they should be lifted and stored i 

 moderately dry sand. 



Fio. 495. TUBEROUS BOOTS OF SKIRUET. 



SKI R WORT . An old name for Skirret (which see). 



SKULL CAP. See Scutellaria. 



SKUNK CABBAGE OB WEED. See Symplo- 

 carpus fcetidus. 



SLASHED. The same as Laciniate (which see). 



SLATERIA. A synonym of Ophiopogon (which 

 see). 



SLIPPER, FLOWER, or SLIFFERWORT. See 

 Calceolaria. 



SLIPPER. LADY'S. See Cypripedium. 



SLIFFER SPURS. See Fedilanthus. 



SLIFFERWORT. See Calceolaria and Cam- 

 panula. 



SLIPS, PROPAGATION BY. A term used in 

 reference to plant-propagation in cases where a specimen 

 may be taken up and divided into several pieces, each 

 of which shall have roots attached, and be capable of 

 forming a plant itself when placed under the proper 

 conditions. Common Box is referred to as an example 

 of a plant that may be increased in almost any quantity 

 from Slips. There are many other subjects which may 

 be similarly propagated. 



SLOANEA (named in honour of Sir Hans Sloane, 

 born in Ireland in 1660, President of the Eoyal Society, 

 founder of the British Museum and the Chelsea Botanic 

 Garden; he died in 1753). OBD. Tiliacece. A genus 

 comprising about thirty species of stove, tropical American 

 trees. Flowers racemose, panicled, or fascicled, axillary 

 or terminal, rarely solitary; sepals or calyx lobes four 

 or five, valvate, rarely coalescing ; petals absent, or very 

 rarely one to four, sepaloid ; stamens numerous. Leaves 

 alternate or sub-opposite, entire or toothed, penninerved. 

 The two species introduced are fine trees, with large 

 leaves. A compost of loam and peat is most suitable. 

 Propagated by cuttings of ripened wood, inserted in 

 sand, under a glass, in heat. 

 S. dentata (toothed), fl. white, large. August to November. 



I. ovate, acute, bluntly toothed ; stipules cordate-triangular 



serrated, h. 50ft. 1752. 



8. sinemariensis (Sinemaria). fl. white, small ; racemes axil- 

 lary. July and August. I. roundish-ovate, entire, 1ft. long; 



stipules long, acuminated, deciduous, h. 50ft. 1820. 



SLOE. See Primus spinosa. 



SLOPES. In gardening, any piece of land on an 

 inclined plane may be called a Slope ; but the term 

 is most generally used in reference to lawns when they 

 are naturally or artificially undulated. Grass or lawn 

 Slopes have to be laid out much in accordance with 

 the space they occupy, and the disposition of the land 

 above and below them. In forming Slopes, the land 

 should be made equally firm throughout, to prevent one 

 part subsiding more than another after the work is 

 finished; a practised eye is one of the principal "helps 

 in rendering the surface and incline uniform. When 

 alterations are in progress, the formation of a Slope often 

 saves an immense amount of work, by utilising spare soil 

 or forming an undulating surface of that naturally placed, 

 instead of carting it away. Gardens situated on sloping 

 ground have an advantage in being more readily drained 

 than if they were on the level, they are also much 

 better situated, provided the aspect is favourable for ex- 

 posure to the sun. 



SLOW-MATCH TREE. A common name for 

 Careya arborea. 



SLUGS. These molluscs are only too well known to 

 everyone, because of the injury done by them to almost 

 all kinds of garden produce. They are especially partial 

 to young, newly-opened leaves of salad plants, e.g., 

 Lettuce ; but they also eat holes in Carrots, Turnips, 

 and other fleshy roots, and are frequently very trouble- 

 some among flowers, not only in borders, but also when 

 potted. Slugs are far less frequently seen than might 

 be expected from their extreme abundance, because of 

 their habit of living concealed, during dry weather, by 

 day, and coming out only after a shower, or at night. 

 Several species are very common. The more important 

 and destructive of these are the following : Arion ater, 

 the Black Slug, is usually more common by roadsides 

 and in waste places than in gardens ; this animal is 

 usually black, though sometimes reddish, but its form 

 and general aspect are easily recognised, whatever the 

 colour. A. hortensis, the Garden Slug, is also common, 

 but is smaller and more slender, and shows grey stripes 

 lengthwise. Umax maximus is our largest Slug, some 

 specimens being 6in. long when stretched out. This 

 species, when full grown, is easily known by its size, 

 but is not abundant anywhere, though more common 

 than it seems. It is spotted and streaked with black. 

 L. flavus, the Yellow Slug, and' L. agrestis, the Field 

 Slug, are very common all over the country ; and 

 L. arborum, the Tree Slug, and L. Sowerbii, the Keeled 

 Slug, are plentiful in some parts of Britain. In all the 

 Slugs of the genera Arion and Limax, the body seems 

 quite naked, the shell being reduced to a small, useless 

 vestige, inclosed in the swollen part in front, known as 

 the mantle. By all of them, in common with most 

 molluscs, the tongue is used for cutting their food ; it 

 is a long belt, or riband, bearing cross rows of small, 

 horny teeth ; as these are worn away on the front of 

 the riband, it is renewed by growth behind. The 

 number and forms of the teeth, and the development of 

 the shell, are of great use in distinguishing the species 

 of Slugs. They all move about by means of contractions 

 and elongations of the broad, flat, lower surface, or foot. 



Remedies. Among the most effectual are baits, such as 

 cabbage or lettuce leaves, hollowed slices of apples, carrots, 

 potatoes, or turnips, laid near the plants that peculiarly 

 need protection. These traps should be frequently exa- 

 mined, and the Slugs knocked off into ammoniacal 

 solution, e.g., gas- water ; or they may be covered with 

 quicklime, or with wood-ashes, salt, or soot. All these 

 latter applications require to be repeated once at least, 

 as the Slugs resist their action by throwing out a thick 

 coat of slime, from which they can crawl out not much 

 the worse ; but they seem tinable to repeat this operation 



