544 SPIILEA 



previous summer, and if the season has been sufficiently sunny and hot to 

 have thoroughly ripened the wood, the plants will be almost hidden by the 

 profusion of flowers. The habit of the plant is graceful owing to the arching 

 form of the slender branches, and altogether there is no more attractive 

 shrub in bloom in early April. 



S. TOMENTOSA, LinncBus. STEEPLEBUSH. 



A shrub 3 to 5 ft. high, with spreading underground roots, ultimately 

 forming a thicket of erect stems which when young are covered with brownish 

 felt. Leaves ovate, \\ to 3 ins. long, f to i^ ins. wide; coarsely an 

 irregularly toothed almost to the base, dark green and nearly smooth above, 

 covered with a close, yellowish grey felt beneath. Flowers purplish rose, 

 densely produced in erect, terminal, branching panicles 4 to 7 ins. long, 

 ii to 2| ins. wide. 



Native of the eastern United States; introduced, according to Aiton, in 

 1736. It is allied to the western S. Douglasii, and is often confused with it; 

 it is, however, distinguished by the thicker, browner (or yellowish) felt 

 beneath the leaves, which are toothed much nearer the base; by flowering 

 some weeks later, and by the ovaries being woolly (smooth in Douglasii). 



Var. ALBA is a pretty white-flowered form. 



The cultivation of these handsome Spirasas is the same as for S. 

 Douglasii (q.v.). 



S. TRILOBATA, Linnczus. 



A twiggy shrub, 3 to 4 ft. high, of broad but compact habit, young shoots 

 and leaves smooth ; stems round, often zigzagged in growth. Leaves 

 roundish, \ to I in. (rarely \\ ins.) long, and about as much wide, coarsely 

 toothed, sometimes obscurely three- or five-lobed, the base rounded or 

 sometimes slightly heart-shaped, rather glaucous green. Flowers white, 

 small, produced during June, packed very numerously in umbels f to i^ ins. 

 across ; each umbel terminating a short leafy twig, springing from the 

 previous year's growth, every flower having a slender,- smooth stalk \ to f in. 

 long. 



Native of N. Asia, from N. China and S. Siberia to Turkestan; introduced 

 in 1801. Although its flower-buds are sometimes injured by frosts, this is a 

 very pretty shrub of neat liabit. 



S. BLUMEI, Don, found in China and Japan, is nearly allied to S. trilobata, 

 but differs in the shape of the leaf, which is ovate or lozenge-shaped, longer 

 than it is wide, the base wedge-shaped. Flowers white, crowded in umbels 

 i in. wide. A shrub 3 to 6 ft. high. 



S. VAN HOUTTEI, Zabel. 



A shrub 6 ft. high, with gracefully arching, smooth, brown steins. Leaves 

 rhomboidal or obovate, sometimes distinctly three-lobed, more or less broadly 

 tapering and entire at the base, coarsely toothed on the upper half; f to if 

 ins. long, \ to i^ ins. wide ; dark green above, rather glaucous beneath, 

 smooth on both sides. Flowers white, \ in. across, produced during June 

 in umbel-like clusters i to 2 ins. across; calyx-lobes erect. 



A hybrid between S. trilobata and probably S. cantoniensis; raised by 

 Mr Billiard, a nurseryman at Fontenay-aux-Roses, near Paris, about 1862. 

 At its best it is probably the finest of all the white-flowered Spiraeas, except 

 perhaps S. arguta; in low-lying situations it is subject to injury by late spring 



