HENDERSON'S HANDBOOK OF PLANTS. 



SIL 



Silvery. Having a whitish metallic luster. 



Simple. Not compound; not branched. 



Sinuate. Having many large blunt lobes. 



Sioshed. Where a surface is divided by 

 deep and very acute incisions. 



Slugs. A. certain remedy against Slugs is 

 salt strewn along the edges of the bench 

 or table. It is a sure dead line, the 

 crossing of which is fatal to the slugs. 



Smooth. Free from asperities or hairs. 



Sobole. A creeping rooting stem. 



Soboliferous. Producing young plants from 

 the roota 



Soil. A good soil is the base of success in 

 all operations of the garden. What are 

 the properties of a good soil is not very 

 easy to convey in writing, as quality is 

 not always confined to a particular color j 

 or texture, though the practical horticul- 

 turist can nearly always tell, by turning 

 up with a spade, the relative qualities of 

 a soil. If selection can be made for gen- 

 eral purposes, a rather dark-colored soil 

 should be chosen, neither too sandy nor 

 too clayey, and as deep as can be found, 

 but not less than ten inches, or the 

 chances are that it will not be of first 

 quality. It should overlay a sandy loam 

 of yellowish color, through which water 

 will pass freely. The condition of the 

 subsoil is of the first importance in choos- 

 ing soil. Sandy loam we believe to be the 

 best; next to that a porous gravel, and 

 the least to be desired is a stiff blue clay. 

 Land having a clay subsoil is always later 

 in maturing crops than one having a sandy 

 or gravelly subsoil; and if, the land is at 

 all level, draining is indispensable at 

 every fifteen or twenty feet, or no satis- 

 faction can be had in culture. It is a 

 common belief that poor land can be 

 brought up by cultivation. A portion of 

 the land used by us has the blue clay 



SOI 



subsoil above referred to, and although in 

 the past twenty years we have expended 

 large sums in draining, subsoiling, and 

 manuring, we have failed to get it into 

 the condition of other portions of our 

 grounds, having the proper subsoil, and 

 do not think that any culture would 

 bring it into as good shape. 



The soil for potting plants in is often a 

 matter causing great anxiety to the ama- 

 teur florist, many of the books giving ad- 

 vice on the subject insisting that special 

 kinds are indispensable fpr different 

 families of plants. We are glad to tell 

 our readers that in our own establish- 

 ment, where upward of two millions of 

 plants are now grown annually in pots, 

 we do not find it necessary to make these 

 nice distinctions. The great bulk of the 

 soil we use in potting is composed of 

 sods cut about three inches deep from 

 any good sod land, preferring such as is 

 known as sandy loam. The sods are 

 heaped up in alternate layers of one-fourth 

 of thoroughly rotted horse or cow manure, 

 or rotted refuse hops from breweries, when 

 such are obtainable. Either of these 

 three manures will do separately or 

 mixed together, as convenient. This 

 compost is better to stand six or eight 

 months, but often our necessities compel 

 us to use it much sooner, which makes no 

 material difference, provided it is at a sea- 

 son of the year when the sod will rot. 

 The manure and sods are thoroughly 

 mixed and chopped up, and for the small- 

 er plants is run through a fine sieve. 



Peat, so much insisted on as a necessi- 

 ty for Azaleas, Ferns, and other fine 

 rooted plants, we rarely use, substituting 

 instead either mould formed from thor- 

 oughly rotted refuse hops, or dried Moss 

 (Sphagnum) run through a fine sieve; 



