7 88 



SAG1TTARIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



SALIX. 



plant begins to perish in flakes, it should 

 be taken up and replanted. Corsica. 

 Syn., Spergula pilifera. 



SAGITt ARIA (Arrowhead ). Water 

 plants of the Water Plantain family, 

 the best known being our native Arrow- 

 head, with its arrow-shaped leaves and 

 tall spikes of white blossoms. Its double 

 variety is handsome, and its blossoms last 

 longer. There are one or two handsome 

 double kinds, the origin of which is not 

 clear, but they are worth growing in 

 ponds ; best in water i ft. deep, if their 

 tubers are planted in mud. 



SALISBURIA (Maiden-hair Tree}. 

 S. adiantifolia is a beautiful tree in all 

 stages and at all seasons, perhaps most 

 attractive during the autumn, just before 

 the leaves drop, since the foliage assumes 

 then a bright yellow hue. Although it dif- 

 fers much from the Conifers, it belongs to 

 that order, and is one of the few deciduous 

 members of it. Probably its scarcity is 

 accounted for by its not being readily pro- 

 pagated, and by its making slow progress 

 during its earlier stages, since, on this 

 account, it is not popular in nurseries. A 

 rather deep, fairly moist soil of a loamy 

 nature seems to meet its requirements, but 

 it is not very particular as to soil, for 

 a fine specimen grows on the shallow 

 gravelly subsoil of Kew. Its fruits are 

 said to be eaten in China and Japan, but 

 they are rarely produced here. There 

 are two or three varieties of the species, 

 tnd, when raised from seed, as it always 

 should be, there are individual differences. 

 Syn.^ Ginkgo biloba. 



SALIX ( Willow). Large and medium 

 sized trees, shrubs, and even alpine trailers 

 of northern and temperate countries, 

 mostly hardy and of singular beauty and 



Old Pollarded Willow in Suffolk, after Strutt. 



interest for our gardens and home grounds, 

 in which they are much neglected. Not- 

 withstanding the number of trees in the 

 country, I doubt if there is a more pictur- 



esque one than the Babylonian Willow, 

 which is not common in many districts 

 about London, although it is by the river 

 and in the eastern counties. There are 

 many, however, who plant this who do 

 not care for handsome Willows of erect 

 habit, but, as we think, with more beauty 

 of colour, such as the scarlet-barked or 

 cardinal Willow, and even the old yellow 

 Willow. Of late years a number of other 

 Weeping Willows have been propagated 

 in Germany and elsewhere, so that we 

 are no longer confined to the old Weeping 

 Willow, which, occasionally, was apt to 

 be cut down in hard winters. When the 

 gardener plants a Willow, it is generally 

 some curious one with a mop head, like 

 the " American " Weeping Willow. Coun- 

 try gentlemen should therefore take the 

 Tree Willows under their own care, and 

 plant them in bold groups and colonies 

 here and there, by water or in wet or 

 marshy places. A marshy place planted 

 with underwood formed of the yellow or 

 red Willow would be charmingly pictur- 

 esque in winter indeed at all times, and 

 there is no difficulty in getting any of 

 these Willows by the hundred or thousand. 

 In places which are much haunted by the 

 rabbit, young Willows of these kinds go 

 very rapidly, and, planted by streams in 

 meadows where there are cattle, they are 

 nibbled down, so that in certain districts 

 a little care may be wanted to protect 

 them. None of the Willows here men- 

 tioned should ever be grafted. I have 

 skeleton Willows alongside some ponds, 

 the sad remains of grafted Willows which 

 were interesting and little-known kinds, 

 all grafted on the common Sallow (Salix 

 capred). The grafted portion gradually 

 died ; the stump on which they are grafted 

 remained sound, and from it have come 

 the vigorous shoots of many Withies. 

 Inasmuch as the whole country and the 

 woods near have many of the same tree, 

 which seeds everywhere near, this unsought 

 plantation of a common tree by garden 

 ponds, is far from a gain. " As easy to 

 strike as a Willow," is a proverb among 

 gardeners, and there is no good reason 

 for grafting these plants. The graceful 

 Willow, called in our gardens the American 

 Willow, is invariably grafted on the Sallow, 

 and if not watched and the suckers re- 

 moved, will quickly perish ; but if a shoot 

 of this plant be hanging into water it 

 quickly roots, showing how easily the trees 

 could be increased if nurserymen would 

 take the trouble to do it in the right way. 

 The objection to the grafting is, first of 

 all, the frequent death of the tree ; 

 secondly, falsified and weak growth, and, 



