PART II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



319 



(for which S. alpestris is often mistaken), 

 the woody S. arborescens, a dwarf, 

 shrubby, evergreen species, with rose- 

 coloured flowers, and the dirty -white 

 S. Saxifraga only worthy of a place 

 in very large collections or in Botanic 

 Gardens. S. rupestris, a sparkling- 

 looking, dwarf, white species, little more 

 than 3 inches high when in bloom, and 

 reminding one or a dwarf S. alpestris, is 

 better worthy of a place. 



SISYRINCHIUM (Satin Flower) - 

 Iris-like plants, few species of which 

 are worthy of culture on the rock- 

 garden. 8. grandiflorum is a beautiful 

 perennial, flowering in early spring, 

 with grass-like foliage and flowers 

 borne on slender stems 6 to 12 inches 

 high, bell-shaped and drooping, a rich 

 purple and a transparent white in 

 the variety album. Both are grace- 

 ful, thriving in sandy peat. Division. 

 North- West America. 



SKIMMIA. Handsome dwarf ever- 

 green shrubs, and among the best for 

 the rock-garden worth cultivating are 

 S. japonica, and S. Fortunei. 



The plant, known in gardens as 

 S. japonica, is not Japanese at all, 

 but a native of China. Mr Fortune 

 met with it in 1848 in a garden at 

 Shanghai, the Nurseryman from whom 

 he obtained it informing him that the 

 plant was brought from a high 

 mountain in the interior, called Wang 

 Shang. Of all the plants Fortune 

 sent home only one reached England 

 alive. The proper name of this species 

 is Skimmia Fortunei. The true S. 

 japoniea is a Japanese plant, and did 

 not find its way into British gardens 

 for some years after S. Fortunei. 



The Skimmias thrive under very 

 varied conditions as regards soil, I 

 have seen them thrive splendidly in 

 strong clay, and also in poor sandy 

 soil and peat. 



SMILAX (Green - Brier). These 

 handsome, evergreen, and neglected 

 trailing shrubs, should have a place 

 in gardens. They are natives of South 

 Europe, North Africa, and North 

 America, some hardy enough for our 

 country, but rarely planted, and yet, 

 I think, very suitable for the more 

 bushy parts of the rock-garden. For 

 a description of the species see in 

 the " English Flower Garden " an 

 article by Mr Lynch, of the Cambridge 

 Botanic Gardens, in the dry soil of 

 which these plants are grown well. 



SOLDANELLA Modest and re- 

 fined true alpine plants that live near 

 the snow-line on many of the great 

 mountain-chains of Europe not bril- 

 liant, but withal beautiful, in pale- 

 bluish bell-shaped flowers, cut into 

 narrow, linear strips, and springing 

 from a dwarf carpet of leathery, 

 shining, roundish leaves. If sound 

 young plants are placed out of doors 

 in a little bed of deep and very sandy 

 loam, they will succeed, especially in 

 moist districts, and in dry ones it 

 will be easy to prevent evaporation by 

 covering the ground near the plants 

 with some cocoa-fibre mixed with sand 

 to give it weight. I have seen a 

 carpet, several feet square, of these 

 plants growing on a bed of fine moist 

 sandy earth on a flat spot in a rock- 

 garden, in this country, and none I 

 saw in the Alps equalled it in luxuri- 

 ance. The best place for the plants is 

 a level spot on the rock-garden near 

 the eye. 



They are readily increased by 

 division, though, as they are starved 

 too often from confinement in small 

 worm-defiled pots, they are rarely 

 strong enough to be pulled in pieces. 

 The smaller kinds will thrive under 

 the same conditions, but require more 



