868 SOLDANKLLA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



SOLIDAGO. 



and the rounded brown berries like a small 

 cherry. Brazil. 



S. TORREYI. A free-flowering perennial, 

 hardy in the south of Britain with root-protec- 

 tion. The violet or while flowers are large 

 and handsome, followed by yellow fruits an 

 inch in diameter. The leaves are waved like 

 an Oak-leaf, 4 to 6 ins. long, and covered 

 beneath with mealy down. Texas. 



S. SIEGLINGII. Attains the size of a small 

 tree after some years of growth. The leaves 

 are a pale green flushed with rose, and reddish- 

 violet while young, their surface studded with 

 scattered spines. The small white flowers 

 only appear on plants of a certain age. Vene- 

 zuela. 



S. WARSCEWICZII bears a general resem- 

 blance to S. macranthum, but is stouter and 

 more bushy, branching from near the base. 

 The stems bear large curved spines and dense 

 brown hairs these extending to the stalks 

 and mid-ribs of the leaves. The foliage is 

 ample, soft green above and greyish beneath ; 

 the flowers large and white ; the fruits pale 

 yellow, smooth, and shining. This kind is 

 one of the best for summer bedding, and easily 

 raised from seed or cuttings. S. America. 



S. WENDLANDI. The noblest of Solanums 

 and one of the handsomest climbing plants for 

 a cool greenhouse, flowering profusely through 

 a long season and at its best about August. 

 It does better planted out than in pots, and 

 has been tried in the open air with some 

 success in warm gardens south of the Thames 

 and in sheltered places along our southern 

 coasts. The fleshy stems climb freely, bearing 

 sparse soft spines. Leaves variable in size and 

 shape, often cut into deep lobes. Flowers in 

 large drooping clusters of a soft lilac-blue 

 colour and 2 ins. or more across ; those shown 

 in the engraving form only a small part of the 

 perfect cluster, which often measures a foot 

 across. The leaves fall in winter when the 

 plant should be kept fairly dry at the root and 

 the shoots well cut back before again starting 

 into growth. Increase by cuttings of tender 

 side-shoots, taken with a heel from plants 

 started early under glass. Costa Rica. 



J. H. B. 



SOLDANELLA (Moon-Wort\ 

 Diminutive and charming alpine flowers, 

 at one time considered difficult to grow, 

 but not really so if grown in peaty or 

 sandy and moist soil, with coarse vigorous 

 plants kept at a distance. They should 

 always be in the rock-garden, or parts of 

 the regular garden devoted to dwarf- 

 plants, and they do best in partial shade. 

 While rock-gardens were made of burnt 

 bricks and other like rubbish piled up so 

 that the first dry wind dried up every root 

 and plant upon it, these things could not 

 be grown. S. alpina is one of the most 

 interesting of the plants growing near the 

 snow-line on the great mountain-chains of 

 Europe. It is not brilliant, but has beau- 

 tiful pendent pale bluish flowers, bell- 



shaped, and deeply fringed. Three or 

 four are borne on a stem 2 to 6 in. high, 

 springing from a carpet of feathery round- 

 ish shining leaves. The plants thrive best 

 in moist districts, and in dry ones evapora- 

 tion may be prevented by covering the 

 ground near them with Cocoa-fibre mixed 

 with sand to give it weight. Good growers 

 often protect them during the winter with 

 tilted sheets of glass, the little plants 

 seeming to miss their natural covering of 

 snow. The most suitable position is a 

 level spot in the rock-garden near the 

 eye. The plant is increased by division, 

 though being often -starved and delicate 

 from confinement in small worm-defiled 

 pots, exposed to daily vicissitudes, it is 

 rarely strong enough to be pulled to 

 pieces. S. montana is allied to S. alpina y 

 but with larger leaves and purer blue 

 flowers. It comes from the same regions 

 and needs the same treatment. It is 

 readily increased by division, but like the 

 last is often too weak for this. S. pusilla 

 has kidney-shaped leaves, and a corolla 

 less deeply fringed. The very small S. 

 minima, with its minute round leaves and 

 its single flower, fringed for a portion of 

 its length only, is rare. These plants 

 thrive under the same conditions as the 

 others, but, being much smaller, require 

 more care in planting, viz. in a mixture of 

 peat and good loam with plenty of sharp 

 sand, and associated with minute alpine 

 plants. They require plenty of water in 

 summer. S. Clusii and S. Wheeleri are 

 similar to those mentioned above. There 

 are white-flowered forms of several of the 

 species, and two or three hybrids, S. 

 Gauderi being a cross between alpina 

 and minima, and S. hybrida between 

 alpina and flust'lta. (Primrose order.) 



SOLIDAGO (Golden Rod}. These N. 

 American Composites exterminate valu- 

 able plants, and give a coarse, ragged 

 aspect to the border. They are also gross 

 feeders and impoverish the soil. They 

 hold their own, however, in a copse, or a 

 rough open shrubbery among the coarsest 

 vegetation, and the silky seeds of some 

 kinds persist, with a pretty effect, far into 

 the winter. There are nearly 100 kinds, 

 of which the best are 6". Buckleyi, a dwarf 

 species with bluish-green foliage and 

 orange flowers ; caesia, another dwarf 

 kind of slender growth with pale yellow- 

 flowers ; Gattingeri, of good habit, with 

 abundant plume-like sprays ; latifolia, a 

 dwarf early kind with broad rounded 

 leaves ; odora, of slender growth, with 

 fragrant deep yellow flowers, quite one of 

 the best ; rigida, of dwarf erect growth, 

 with downy leaves, fine flowers, and roots 



