LIST OF FLOWERS 



SPEEDWELL. See Veronica. 



SPHENOGYNE. This is a large family, but S. speciosa is the 

 only kind that need be mentioned here. It is usually classed as a 

 hardy annual and will succeed when sown in the open in spring; but 

 it is more wisely treated as half-hardy by sowing in heat in March 

 and transplanting in due course into light soil. It is of slender but 

 bushy growth, after the style of a Marguerite, and bears yellow 

 flowers with dark centres ringed with black. 



SPIRiEA. Either as a border perennial or as a dwarf shrub the 

 Spiraea is valuable, being hardy, simple of culture, of good form and 

 of pleasing variety in the colour of its flowers. Among the herbace- 

 ous varieties S. aruncus (Goat's-beard), a perennial of vigorous 

 growth, 3 or 4 feet high, is useful both for its foliage and its 

 graceful plumes of flowers. It is hardy enough to thrive in any, 

 ordinary soil but does best in deep moist loam, 5. lobata is another 

 hardy plant, growing from 2 to 3 feet high and bearing beauti- 

 ful clusters of pink 'flowers. In the «hrub kind there are many 

 beautiful varieties, such as S. hyfericifoUa, with its tall, slender 

 stems arching under its clusters of white flowers; S. discolor, with 

 beautiful panicles of creamy-white flowers; S. confusa, the compact 

 little shrub often grown in the greenhouse in pots for early spring 

 flowering; and S. japonica, growing about 3 feet high with fiat 

 clusters of pinky-red flowers. Of this species there are several good 

 forms, such as Bumalda, of dwarf growth and rose-tint flowers; 

 splendens, with flowers of yellowish pink; and Frcebeli, of value for 

 its early flowers of fine claret colour. In cultivation of the Spiraea 

 it should be borne in mind that it is a moisture-loving plant and needs 

 space in which to display its fuU beauty. 



SQUILL. SeeSciLLA, 



STAR OF BETHLEHEM. See Ornithogalum. 



STATICE [Sea Lavender) . Some of the smaller kinds of this 

 family are useful for the Rock Garden, such as S. minuta and minuti- 

 flora, and S. incana, of compact and dwarf habit, growing about 

 8 or , 10 inches high and with flowers in several colours. S. 

 latifoiia is, perhaps, the best of the larger kind — a hardy perennial 

 some 18 inches high, with wide - spreading stems and large 

 panicles of lavender-coloured flowers. Another good variety is S. 

 Suworowi (sometimes called Candelabrum), a hardy annual growing 

 about I foot high, with flowers of soft rose-colour, to be had, also, 

 in crimson and white. Most of the Statices bear their flowers in 



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