3048 



SAGE 



SAGITTARIA 



July after harvesting an early crop, such as beets, cab- 

 bage or peas. About twice in the three weeks after 

 setting the plants, the field is raked to destroy sprouting 

 weeds and to keep the surface loose, after which, if well 

 done, but slight hoeing is necessary. In September, 

 when the plants crowd each other, each alternate plant 

 or row of plants is cut for sale and the remainder 

 allowed to fill the space. At the first cutting each plant 

 should make about two marketable bunches; at the 

 second at least three. This practice not only insures 

 plants full of leaves at each cutting but at least doubles 

 the quantity in the end. 



In America the green broad-leaved varieties are in 

 far greater demand than the colored and the narrow- 

 leaved kinds. The best variety known to the writer is 

 Holt Mammoth, which is exceptionally prolific of large 

 leaves. It is said to produce no seed. M G. KAINS. 



SAGENIA. A generic name for a group of tropical 

 ferns here referred to Tectaria, from which there is no 

 valid distinction. For S. decurrens see Tectaria decur- 

 rens. 



SAGERETIA (after Augustin Sageret, French 

 botanist, 1763-1851). Rhamndcese. A genus of about 

 15 species of armed or unarmed often scandent shrubs 

 native to the warmer parts of Asia, in Amer. from N. C. 

 to Mex., with opposite or nearly opposite, entire or ser- 

 rulate, small, deciduous or persistent Ivs. and with 

 minute whitish fls. in terminal or axillary spikes or 

 panicles, followed by small berry-like, mostly purple 

 irs. Fls. perfect, 5-merous; the hooded petals and the 

 stamens not exceeding the sepals; disk cup-shaped, 

 5-lobed; ovary superior, 2-3-celled with a short 2-3- 

 lobed style: fr. a small globose drupe with 2-3 leathery 

 nutlets. These plants are little known in cult. S. 

 theezans has been recently intrp. by the Dept. of 

 Agric.; according to F. N. Meyer it may be useful as a 

 hedge-plant and its fls. have a delightful fragrance 

 which attracts numerous insects; it is apparently not 

 hardy N., while S. pycnophylla has proved hardy at the 

 Arnold Arboretum. The American S. minutiflora is 

 not recorded as being in cult., but may possibly have 

 been planted in collections in the southern states. The 

 frs. of some species are sweet and edible. Prop, is by 

 seeds and probably by cuttings like berchemia which it 

 resembles in habit and general appearance. S. theezans, 

 Brongn. Spinescent shrub, to 6 ft., with slender spread- 

 ing branches: Ivs. persistent, or subpersistent, short- 

 petioled, ovate or oval, obtusish, subcordate or rounded 

 at the base, minutely serrulate, lustrous above, gla- 

 brous or at first slightly villous beneath, J^-l in. long: 

 fls. sessile in villous spikes Hj-1 in. long or sometimes 

 longer and forming terminal panicles leafy at the base; 

 sepals slightly pubescent outside: fr. purplish black, 

 about K m - across. Fls. in autumn; fr. in spring. 

 China. S. pycnophylla, Schneid. Similar to the pre- 

 ceding species: Ivs. smaller, J^-Jiin. long, rarely nearly 

 %in. long, sometimes acutish: fls. white, glabrous, in 

 slender glabrous spikes H-1J^ in. long, usually only 

 1-4 at the ends of the branchlets. W. China. S. minuti- 

 flora, Trel. (S. Michaiixii, Brongn.). Spinescent, 

 straggling or trailing shrub: Ivs. short-petioled, leath- 

 ery, ovate to ovate-oblong, acute, serrulate, pubescent 

 while young, glabrous and lustrous at maturity, J^-l Y^ 

 in. long: fls. -j^in. across, in terminal and axillary slen- 

 der sometimes panicled spikes: fr. J^in. across, often 

 gibbous, purple. Fls. in autumn: fr. in spring. N. C. to 

 Fla. and Ala. ALFRED REHDER. 



SAGINA (Latin, fatness; perhaps alluding to the 

 forage value). Caryophyllaceae. PEARL WORT. Annual 

 or perennial tufted herbs, sometimes used for edging. 



Leaves awl-shaped: fls. small, usually compara- 

 tively long-stemmed; sepals 4-5; petals 4-5, entire or 

 slightly emarginate, minute or none; stamens equal in 



number to the sepals or twice as many; ovary 1-loculed, 

 many-seeded; styles of the same number as the sepals 

 and alternate with them. About 50 species, natives of 

 the temperate and colder regions of the world. 



subulata, Wimm. (S. pilifera, Hort. Spergula pilif- 

 era, Hort. Spergula subulata, Sw.). PEARLWORT. 

 An evergreen, hardy, densely tufted little plant, cov- 

 ering the ground like a sheet of moss: Ivs. very small, 

 stiff, aristate on the margin, linear: sts. branching and 

 creeping: fls. white, studded all over the plant on long, 

 very slender peduncles. July-Sept. Corsica. R.H. 

 1896, p. 435. R.B. 20: 153. Var. aftrea has Ivs. marked 

 with yellow. A good rock-plant in shady places. Cult. 

 similar to arenaria. Prop, by division. 



F. W. BARCLAY. 



SAGITTARIA (sagitta is Latin for arrow, referring 

 to the arrow-shaped leaves). Alismacese. ARROWHEAD. 

 Perennial hardy herbs useful for foliage effects in bogs 

 and shallow ponds and also for their white buttercup- 

 like flowers. 



Plants of mostly erect habit, aquatic, the Ivs. and 

 scapes arising from more or less tuberous or knotted 

 rootstocks: Ivs. typically arrow-shaped, with long basal 

 lobes, but sometimes long and linear: fls. imperfect, 

 monoecious (staminate fls. usually in the uppermost 

 whorls) or dioecious, with 3 white broad petals and 3 

 small greenish sepals, the stamens and pistils numer- 

 ous, the latter ripening into small achenes; infl. com- 

 posed of successive whorls of 3-stalked fls. Sometimes 

 the Ivs. are floating. The number of species admitted 

 is variable, but Buchenau in the last treatment of 

 the genus in Engler's Das Pflanzenreich, hft. 16 (iv. 15, 



1903) describes 31. 

 Temperate and tropi- 

 cal regions of the world 

 though lacking in Afr. 

 and Austral. 



Sagittarias are 

 mostly used for colo- 

 nizing in the open, but 

 S. montevidensis now 

 the most popular spe- 

 cies is grown in in- 

 door aquaria or plunged 

 in open ponds in the 

 summer. The arrow- 

 heads are perennials of 

 easy culture, although 

 likely to be infested 

 with aphis. Propaga- 

 tion is by division, or 

 sometimes by seeds. 



A. Sepals of pistillate 

 fls. (usually in the 

 lower whorls) erect 

 after flowering, and 

 the pedicels of these 

 fls. thick: carpels 

 not glandular. 



montevidensis, 

 Cham. & Schlecht. 



folia; often known as S. er y lar g e > sometimes 

 variabilis. ( x 1 A) growing 6 ft. tall, with 



If .-blades 1-2 ft. long: 

 Ivs. arrow-shaped, with 

 long, diverging, sharp 

 basal lobes: fls. very large (2 to nearly 3 in. across), 

 the rounded petals white with a purple blotch at the 

 base. Argentina to Brazil, Chile, and Peru. B.M. 

 6755. Gn. 27:8. G. 17:273. G.W. 4, p. 68. G.Z. 

 30:241. I.H. 31:543. First known as a cult, plant 

 from seeds sent to England in 1883 from Buenos Ayres 

 by John Ball. It is now a popular plant for aquaria 



