144 THE SPHLEA. 



THE SPIR^A. 



IN the month of July the wooded pastures are varie- 

 gated with little groups of shrubbery full of delicate 

 white blossoms in compound pyramidal clusters, attract- 

 ing more attention from a certain downy softness in their 

 appearance than from their beauty. These plants have 

 received the name of Spiraea from the spiry arrangement 

 of their flowers. The larger species among our wild 

 plants, commonly known as the Meadow-Sweet, in some 

 places as Bridewort, is very frequent on little tussocks 

 and elevations rising out of wet soil. It is a slender 

 branching shrub, bearing a profusion of small, finely 

 serrate and elegant leaves, extending down almost to 

 the roots, and a compound panicle of white impurpled 

 flowers at the ends of the branches. It is well known to 

 to all who are familiar with the wood-scenery of New 

 England, and is seen growing abundantly in whortle- 

 berry pastures, in company with the small kalmia and 

 the swamp rose. It is a very free bloomer, lasting from 

 June till September, often blending a few solitary spikes 

 of delicate flowers with the tinted foliage of autumn. 



THE HAKDHACK. 



The flowers of the purple Spiraea, or Hardback, are con- 

 spicuous by roadsides, especially where they pass over 

 wet grounds. It delights in the borders of rustic wood- 

 paths, in lanes that conduct from the enclosures of some 

 farm cottage to the pasture, growing all along under the 

 loose stone-wall, where its crimson spikes may be seen 

 waving in the wind with the nodding plumes of the 

 golden-rod and the blue spikes of the vervain, well 

 known as the " Simpler's Joy." The Hardback affords no 



