58 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ April, 
THE SNOW PLANT. 
NE of the most remarkable members 
of the vegetable world is tlie Snow 
Plant of the Californian Sierras, the 
Sarcodes sanguineci of Torrey, which belongs 
to the natural order Monotropese. It is leafless 
and fleshy, but clothed below with scales, and 
bearing in the upper portion a dense spike-like 
raceme of five-lobed campanulate flowers. A 
coloured figure of it is given in the January 
number of VicJc’s Illustrated Monthly Magazine , 
accompanied by the following article and 
woodcut, for the use of which latter we are 
indebted to Mr. Vick :— 
“A very curious and beauti¬ 
ful object is the Snow Plant 
of the Sierras. It stands 
alone, for there is but one 
species, and we are not aware 
of any known varieties. It 
loves the mountains, and we 
believe is never found at a 
less elevation than four thou¬ 
sand feet above the sea, 
where it drinks the cool 
water from the melting snow. 
We first saw this interesting 
plant one very fine morning 
in the neighbourhood of the 
Calaveras Grove of Big Trees, 
and hastily left the car¬ 
riage, which was winding its 
way slowly up the moun¬ 
tain, to capture what was 
to us a treasure indeed. 
Snow still lingered in the shady places and 
dells, and among these were several fine plants, 
one of which we gathered. It was icy cold, 
and as it became warm, the beautiful red 
assumed a darker hue, until finally it became 
purple. 
The Snow Plant, Sarcodes sanguinea, is a 
parasite that grows on the roots of trees, 
usually those of Pine, and from three to five 
inches below the surface of the ground. The 
whole plant is succulent, and all above the 
soil, leaf, stem and flower, is of a crimson or 
blood-red colour, while the portion not ex¬ 
posed to the light, as shown by the ground-line 
of the little engraving, is of a pale pink. The 
usual height of the plant is from ten to fifteen 
inches, but we have heard of much larger 
specimens. 
Any attempt to preserve a plant in any¬ 
thing like a natural condition we were satis¬ 
fied would be a failure, and as the next best 
thing determined to secure a good painting, if 
possible; and in this were fortunate, for find¬ 
ing an artist sketching in the mountains, we 
secured his services, and a fine oil painting of 
this elegant mountain plant, of which we have 
never seen even a wood-cut representation, 
except the little one we publish with this, and 
no coloured plate has before been given to the 
world that we can learn. We have taken 
great pains to have a correct likeness made, 
and with tolerable success. Our page was not 
large enough to show a medium-sized plant, 
but specimens are not uncommon of the size 
of our coloured plate. Some attempts have 
been made to carry the Snow Plant east in 
ice and snow, but with not very marked 
success. A few years since, a gentleman of San 
Francisco grew plants from seed.” 
ROSES ON THEIR OWN ROOTS. 
E are being forced back to this by a 
combination of causes. Eosarians 
are hardly any longer free agents in 
this matter, and the irresistible logic of facts 
is likely to prove far more potent than the 
slower and less certain logic of reason. Cir¬ 
cumstances so widely apart as improved agri¬ 
culture and the abnormal severities of our 
winters, combine to discourage the cultivation 
of Standard Eoses. The first is daily assailing, 
and will finally destroy our supply of hedge-row 
briers ; the second slaughters them by the thou¬ 
sand, in their budding quarters and afterwards. 
We have heard a good deal about zones 
of cold, but bringing these to the test of ex¬ 
perience as illustrated by the doings of the 
frost among our Standard Eoses, during the 
last two years, the most intense cold is the 
zone of our Standard Eoses ranging from 2-g- 
feet to 4 feet from the surface of the ground. 
It is certain that above and below these lines 
plants seem safer than on them. Pillar Eoses, 
for example, or Eoses up trees, are found to be 
safe, as well as Eoses on the ground-level, 
while standards of the orthodox heights are 
crippled and slain in all directions. The lesson 
is obvious—abolish standards, and dwarf or 
raise them into giants, if we would save our 
Eoses. Why, indeed, grow them at all ? They 
are fashionable and convenient, no doubt; 
but how many fashions have been and 
are not, and convenience is often a matter 
more of custom than necessity! The pur¬ 
chasing of so many briers, or sending a 
man to crowbar them out of hedge-rows, has 
been a convenient and cheap way of procuring 
Eoses. But the rooting of Bose-cuttings, and 
the grafting of Eoses on roots or dwarf stocks, is 
just as simple, easy, and convenient, when one 
learns how to manage them, 
