172 Beautiful Plants growing wild 



of the twigs ; and their color is a fine rich purple. This plant 

 looks very much like an Azalea. — Swamps, or low grounds. Not 

 common ; but grows in plenty in a swamp close by Adams' Row, 

 at Newton. — Blossoms in May. — When transplanted, it should be 

 set in peat, or bog earth, in the shade of taller plants. 



S'pir<£^a. 



iS'pirae^a salicifolia L. Willow-leaved Hardback, Meadow Sweet. 

 A shrub three or four feet high, with several slender, smooth, reddish 

 stems, branching from one root. Leaves willowish, lance-forrned, 

 tapering at base, rather blunt pointed, smooth and thin, with sharp 

 teeth pointing upward. Calyx with five segment. Corolla five- 

 petaled. Flowers small, white, crowded into a terminal panicle 

 or bunch, of a somewhat conical shape, composed of small flow- 

 ering branches at the top of the stem, and from the shoulders of 

 the upper leaves. — Meadows and pastures. — July, August. 



.S'pirse^a tomentosa L. Downy Spiraea, Hardback. A very 

 common, but beautiful, slender shrub, two or three feet in height. 

 Leaves nearly oval, thick and tough, dark green above, whitish 

 and very downy beneath. Calyx in five divisions. Corolla five-petal- 

 ed. Flowers small, fine purple, growing at the end of the stem in a 

 compound spike, about five inches long, shaped like the flame of a 

 candle. — Low, or damp grounds. — July, August. 



StayhyUa. 

 Staphylea trifolia L. Bladder nut. A handsome shrub, from 

 six to ten feet high, remarkable for its inflated, bladder-like capsules 

 or seed cases. Leaves in threes, somevi^hat hairy ; leafets oval, 

 notched, paler beneath, with a point long-drawn. Calyx five-parted, 

 erect, tinged with red, its divisions oblong, bluntly tipped, its base 

 contracted into a stalk that forms a joint with the flower stem. 

 Petals five, white, inverted egg-shaped, obtuse, concave. Flowers 

 in a short, nodding panicle or cluster, with branching stems. The 

 capsule or bladder, has three cells, each of which, where the fruit is 

 ripe, usually contains one, two, or three smooth, hard, small nuts. — • 

 Rocky hills; woods at Weston. — May, June. 



Yiburnum. 



" The different species of Fiburnum are fine flowering shrubs, 

 and with the elder, which need not be described, constitute a 

 principal ornament of our woods and thickets, during the first part 

 of summer." 



This genus has a five-parted calyx, proceeding from the upper 

 part of the germ ; acorolla cleft into five segments ; and a one-seeded 

 berry. The reader will do well to keep in mind, that all our spe- 

 cies of Fiburnum, bear clusters in the form of a cyme, in which, 

 as in common elder, the general flower stems radiate from one 



