DESCRIPTIVE 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. 

 Spheeno^yne 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 

 j^leasing kind. The flower has some resemblance to the 

 Calliopsis. Rays, yellow ; disk, dark-brown; about tw^o 

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

 bed of it would be a delightful contrast Tvith some other 

 dwarf plant of an opposite color. 



SPIR^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. 



" Each 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. Tllmaria plena^ is an improved va- 

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



