Addisonia 63 



(Plate 112) 

 SPIRAEA THUNBERGII 



Thunberg's Spiraea 



Native of Japan and China 

 Family Rosacea^ Rose Family 



Spiraea crenata Th.yxah.'BX.'ia.p. 210. 1784. Not Spiraea crenata h. 1753. 

 Spiraea Thunbergii Siebold; Blume,Biidr. 1115. 1826. 



With its spreading arched branches, this is one of the most 

 graceful of shrubs, attaining a height of five or six feet and an equal 

 width, the white flowers borne in great profusion. The bark of the 

 old branches is a deep chestnut-brown, while the branches of the 

 year are clothed with a paler bark, and are pubescent. The glabrous 

 leaves are numerous, alternate, and appear for the most part after 

 the flowers; they are linear-lanceolate, up to an inch and a half 

 long and three sixteenths of an inch wide, sessile or nearly so, and 

 are gradually narrowed from the middle to each end; the margin 

 is serrate, except at the base, with rather distant sharp teeth. The 

 flowers, appearing for the most part in advance of the leaves, are 

 about a third of an inch across, are on slender glabrous pedicels a 

 quarter to three eighths of an inch long, and occur in sessile clusters 

 of two to five on the branches of the previous year, each cluster 

 subtended by several bracts. The calyx is glabrous, its five lobes 

 deltoid. The petals, equal in number to the lobes of the calyx 

 and alternate with them, are pure white, obovate, and much exceed 

 the stamens. The pistils are five, distinct, glabrous, and develop 

 into follicles which open on the inner side. 



In late April or the fore part of May, in the latitude of New York 

 City, this delightful little Japanese shrub is clothed with a mantle 

 of white blossoms, the spreading arched branches giving it a dainty 

 grace possessed by few other shrubs. The bright green foliage of 

 summer passes to orange or scarlet in the fall, making of it also an 

 attractive object at that season. It is of the easiest culture, thriving 

 in almost any soil of reasonable quality, but preferring conditions 

 slightly moist rather than dry. As an individual specimen on the 

 lawn it is of striking appearance, or it is effective in the border 

 where feathery masses of white are desired. It is the first spiraea, 

 as well as one of the earliest shrubs, to bloom, and this adds much 

 to its value and attractiveness. It may readily be propagated 

 from seeds or by green-wood cuttings under glass. The plant from 

 which the illustration was prepared, has been in the New York 

 Botanical Garden for many years. 



Thunberg in his Flora Japonica erroneously associated this with 



