JANUARY. 



39 



1. SpiRiE^A DouGLAsii. — A beautiful species, first discov- 

 ered and sent home by Douglas from Oregon, and though 

 introduced to American collections five or six years ago, is 

 still rare, and little known. It flowered in perfection with 

 us last summer, and proves to be a much handsomer shrub 

 than we had anticipated from what we saw of it before our 

 specimens attained a vigorous growth. In general appearance 

 it approaches our S. tomentosa, but far excels it, both in the 

 elegance of its foliage and the brilliancy of its flowers. The 

 leaves are longer and narrower than that species, of a much 

 deeper green above ; and beneath, in the place of a dark 

 ferruginous hue, it has the silvery brightness of the abele. 

 The flowers are produced in much the same way, forming 

 dense plumes, but full and round at the top, and not tapering 

 to the end ; the color too is of a rich bright rose, exceedingly 

 showy, forming, with its silvery foliage, a brilliant object. 

 It grows only two or three feet high, and blooms late in the 

 season, after many of the other species are out of flower. 



It is quite hardy, and grows in any good soil, on a rather 

 dry subsoil ; for we have foun^ that when the situation was 

 wet during winter the plants sufll'ered somewhat, losing the 

 extremities of their shoots, and consequently destroying a 

 portion of their bloom buds. One peculiarity in this species 

 is, that the buds begin to open at the top of the spikes, thus 

 bringing the whole in flower nearly at the same time. We 

 esteem it a very fine species. 



2. Spir^^a Callosa, (S. Fortunez.) — A more recent spe- 

 cies, originally introduced to England by the London Horti- 

 cultural Society in 1824, but subsequently lost. It has now 

 been re-introduced by Mr. Fortune, who sent home plants from 

 China. It proves to be one of the most distinct as well as 

 one of the most beautiful we possess, having deep red blos- 

 soms, which are produced in large broad corymbosas panicles, 

 as represented in the annexed engraving, (fig. 4.) The foliage 

 is of a fine dark green, tinged with red, which gives the plant 

 a ruddy aspect. The foliage is somewhat the form of S. 

 bella, being lanceolate, rugose, sharply serrate, tapering to 

 both ends, but entire near the base. It flowers abundantly 



