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PB ACTIO AL GUIDE TO GABDEN PLANTS 



SMILAX 



guished by the colour of the flowers, which 

 are red, white, rosy, bright blue, and deep 

 violet. There is also a form with deep 

 violet double flowers. 



Culture and Projjagation. — These 

 plants are easily grown in any good 



garden soil in open sunny situations and 

 may be massed in the border, shrubbery, 

 or rock garden, and also in rougher parts 

 of the garden. They are easily increased 

 in autumn or early spring simply by 

 dividing the tufts. 



CXIV. LILIACEiE-Lily Order 



A large order of herbaceous perennial, rarely annual shrubs or trees, having 

 bulbous, tuberous, fascicled or creeping rootstocks, herbaceous or woody 

 stems, and polymorphous cauline or radical leaves vyith usually parallel veins, 

 rarely net-veined. Inflorescence mostly terminal, solitary, racemose, spiked, 

 umbellate or capitate, rarely panicled, furnished with scarious or spathe-like 

 bracts. Flowers hermaphrodite or rarely one-sexed by abortion, regular or 

 rarely irregular. Perianth inferior, usually composed of 6 almost equal seg- 

 ments, very rarely 4, 8 or more, more or less distinctly in 2 circles, free, or 

 very rarely united at the very base. Stamens usually 6, hypogynous or 

 attached to the perianth lobes. Styles usually united at the top. Fruit 

 superior, 3 -celled, berry-like or fleshy, many-seeded. 



This order contains over 2,000 species, a large number of which are 

 remarkable for the size, beauty, and colour of their flowers. They are dis- 

 tributed over temperate and tropical parts of the world. 



SMILAX (American China Boot). 

 A genus of trailing or cHmbing shrubs 

 with alternate, distichous, or rarely 

 opposite, often perennial leaves, 3-5- 

 nerved, the stalks of which are often 

 furnished with two tendrils. Flowers 

 small, more or less yellowish-green, di- 

 oecious, in axillary clusters or umbels. 

 Perianth inferior, 6-parted, with similar 

 segments. Male flowers with 6 stamens. 

 Female flowers with 6 or fewer staminodes. 

 Culture and Propagation. — These 

 plants may be used in much the same 

 way as Ivy, and are more valuable for 

 appearance and foliage than for their 

 flowers. The climbing kinds are excellent 

 for clothing walls, or for rambling over 

 boulders, ruins, old tree trunks, &o., and 

 always thrive best in warm sunny posi- 

 tions where the growths can be ripened 

 and hardened by the sunshine. They 

 ilourish in a rather dry sandy loam and 

 may be increased by seeds, layers, and 

 division of the roots. It may be re- 

 marked that, as the male and female 

 flowers are borne on separate plants 

 (dioecious), seeds will only be fomid on 

 plants bearing female flowers, but they 

 inust be fertilised by pollen from the 

 male flowers, otherwise they will remain 

 barren. Cuttings of the ripened or half- 



ripened shoots will root under a hand 

 light or on a gentle hotbed in summer 

 and autumn, if kept close and shaded for 

 some time. They are, however, some- 

 times difficult to root. 



S. aspera (PricTdy Ivy). — A trail- 

 ing S. European evergreen species with 

 prickly stems 5-10 ft. long, and ovate 

 or lance-shaped, cordate, spiny-toothed, 

 leathery leaves, 7-9-nerved, and some- 

 times spotted with white as in the variety 

 maculata. Flowers appear in July, sweet- 

 scented, whitish or flesh-coloured, fol- 

 lowed by red berries. The variety mauri- 

 tanica is a quick-growing cUmber with 

 greenish-yellow flowers and angular stems. 

 It is scarcely suitable, however, for the 

 open air except in the mildest parts of the 

 country. Buchananiana is a distinct 

 form with long leaves with bristly hairs 

 on the margins. 



Culture dc. as above. 



S. australis (S. latifolia). — A more or 

 less prickly-stemmed Australian species 

 3-5 ft. high, with leaves 2-4 in. long, 

 varying in shape from ovate lance-shaped 

 to oblong or nearly round, and having 

 short twisted stalks. Flowers in summer, 

 white, pale green, or purplish. 



Cultitre dc. as above. 



