CHAPTER XI 



NOT many of the willows are very useful in a small garden, 

 but the dwarfs Salix reticulata and S. serpyllifolia are 

 happy in a cool and damp corner of the rockwork. Much 

 moisture is essential. The latter of those above named I collected 

 among the foothills of the Matterhorn, and in wet peat it has made 

 a beautiful little specimen extending its tiny branches among 

 Gentiana verna and other small creatures. Salix myr smites jac- 

 quiniana dwells beside it another very minute willow with neat 

 catkins of purple. Of larger species I have a good weeping 

 willow, S. ramulus aureus, whose golden rain of tresses in winter 

 makes it beautiful. The catkins are also pure gold. S. sericea 

 pendula, a pretty shrub with catkins of silver and pale gold, and 

 the Japanese S. mutabilis, with wonderful catkins of lemon and 

 scarlet, I also grow. This latter species is peculiarly impatient of 

 drought, and, since his feet are not in water, dislikes a hot summer 

 exceedingly. 



Salsola fruticosa lacks charm, but I am giving this new shrub 

 rope enough to hang itself. It may surprise me yet. 



Salvia dichroa, from the Atlas Mountains, is almost a shrub 

 and, when prosperous, attains to six feet high, and presents you 

 with flower spikes of white and purple two feet in length. An 

 established plant of this is a magnificent sight ; but you must give 

 it a warm and sunny corner in well-drained loam. 



Sambucus, the Elder, has some good varieties, of which I possess 



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