MY SHRUBS III 
This would be a treasure, but I know not if it is in cultivation. 
There are other varieties of less note, the best perhaps being 
S. rosea, a pretty thing with dense, pale pink inflorescence. 
Smilax aspera, the Prickly Ivy of Southern Europe, I have 
collected about Mentone. It makes a mighty mass on a wall, 
and the little flower clusters are abundant; but the shrub has 
not set its beautiful bunches of berries here. The well-known 
Sarsaparilla is made from the roots of a Chinese Smilax. S. 
ornata must be a beautiful foliage plant, but I have only seen 
Nicholson’s figure of it. S. australis differs little from S. aspera, 
but has more showy spray of white blossoms. 
Of Solanum, the familiar S. crispum, from Chili, makes a large 
shrub on a wall, and will stand well in a shrubbery. The blue 
flowers are like those of a potato, the fruits red. S. jasminotdes, 
another South American, will prosper best in half shade, and 
gladdens an east and west wall in autumn with racemes of pure 
white blossoms. S. Wendlandii, from Costa Rica, is the monarch 
of the species. A cold house is the right place for it ; but in very 
favoured corners, with winter protection, it may stand out of 
doors in the south. The flower is a beautiful mauve approaching 
blue, and is as large again as that of S. crispum. 
Sollya heterophylla is a treasure from Australia—a climbing 
evergreen for a warm wall—which covers itself with innumerable 
little blue bells in summer time. Far more dainty even than this 
is Sollya Drummondiu, a plant from fairy-land direct. The wee 
blue flowers tremble among the lace-work of foliage. Give it a 
wall to climb on, and keep this gem in a cold house. 
Sophora, including Edwardsia, is beautiful in all its manifesta- 
tions. I have a good specimen of the deciduous Pagoda-tree, S. 
