146 NAT. ORDER. SPIR^ACE^. 



main body by threads, which has given it the name it bears — Filip&n- 

 dula and Dropwort. These tubers enable the plant to resist drought, 

 and render it very difficult to be eradicated or destroyed ; the stem is 

 erect, from a foot to a foot and a half in height, angular, smooth, leafy, 

 and a little branched at the top ; leaves alternate, interiiiptedly pin- 

 nate, serrate, and jagged, smooth, composed of several pairs of leaflets, 

 all of which are set in uniform, or nearly corresponding in size ; the 

 terminating leaflet is three-lobed ; a pair of roundish, united, indented 

 stipules at the base of each leaf, embracing the stem ; the flowers are 

 many, and in a cymose, loose, erect panicle, cream-colored, often tip- 

 ped with red, or red on the outside. It is an elegant plant, which 

 grows very luxuriantly in gardens, and often with double flowers. It 

 flowers early in July. 



Spiraa ulmaria. Common Meadow Sweet. This has a peren- 

 nial fibrous root ; stems erect, three or four feet high, angular and fiu*- 

 rowed, tinged with red, leafy, and branched in the upper part ; the 

 leaves are interruptedly pinnate ; leaflets very unequal in size, shaiply 

 serrate, clothed beneath with white down, the end one remarkably 

 large and three-lobed ; a pair of rounded serrate stipules are joined to 

 the common leaf-stalk, and clasp the stem ; the flowers are white, in a 

 very large compound cyme, the side branches of which rise much above 

 the central one ; it perfumes the air with the sweet hawthorn-like odor 

 of its plentiful blossoms from June till August. There are varieties 

 of this species with double flowers, and with variegated leaves. 



Spiraea trifoliata. Three-lea\?ed Spiraea. This, the last species 

 which we think worthy of notice at this time, has a perennial root ; 

 the stalks are annual, about a foot high, and send out branches from 

 the side the whole length ; the leaves are for the most part trifoliate, 

 but sometimes single or in pairs ; they are about an inch and a half 

 long, and half an inch broad, endmg in acute pomts, sharply serrate, 

 of a bright green above, and pale beneath ; the flowers are in close 

 terminating panicles, on slender peduncles. This is a native of North 

 America, and flowers in June and July. 



