DESCKIPTIVK LIST OF FLOWERS. 357 



set one foot apart ; or sow the seed in April. One foot 

 high ; very branching ; producing a long succession of blue 

 flowers, which close at the approach of rain and in the 

 evening. There is also a variety with white flowers. 



SPH<ENOGYNE. 



Sphffinogf lie speciosa. This is a most beautiful flower- 

 ing annual from the Cape of Good Hope, growing about one 

 foot high. The plant is of handsome foliage and a most 

 profuse bloomer. The flowers open fully when the sun 

 shines upon them, and then display a show of the most 

 pleasing kind. The flower has some resemblance to the 

 Calliopsis. Rays, yellow; disk, dark-brown; about two 

 inches in diameter ; in bloom from July to October. A 

 bed of it would be a delightful contrast with some other 

 dwarf plant of an opposite color. 



SPIRJE A. MEADOW SWEET. 



[Name supposed to be from the Greek word meaning to entwine, in reference 

 to the use of some of the species in garlands.] 



A large genus, comprising both herbaceous perennials 

 and ornamental shrubs. 



Spiraea Ulmaria. Meadow Sweet, or Queen of the 

 Meadow. A hardy herbaceous perennial, a native of 

 Britain, where it abounds in moist meadows, perfuming 

 the air with the Hawthorn-like scent of its abundant 

 white blossoms ; in June, July, and August. It grows 

 three or four feet high. 



" Eacli dry entangled copse empurpled glows 

 With Orchis blooms; while in the moistened plain 

 The Meadow-sweet its luscious fragrance yields." Dr. Bidlake's Year. 



The double kind, S. IT linaria plena, is an improved va- 

 riety of the single. A large mass of it is quite imposing ; 



