STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



The botanical name is of Greek origin, from oxus, sour, 

 and coccus, a berry. The plant thrives best in wet sandy 

 soil and low mossy marshes. 



WILLOW-LEAVED MEADOWSWEET Spircea salicifolia (L.). 



Frederic Pursh, in his " North American Flora," a valuable 

 work but little referred to, gives no less than seven different 

 species of this Genus Spiraea as natives of Canada, but the 

 description of two or three will be sufficient for the present 

 limited work on the indigenous shrubs of this portion of the 

 Dominion. Of the white-flowered species, Spircea salicifolia, 

 the Willow-leaved Meadowsweet, is the most commonly met 

 with, and is often found in gardens and shrubberies. It is 

 a pretty, graceful shrub, with clustered feathery panicles of 

 white or pale waxy-pink flowers, which are terminal on 

 slender branches ; the leaves are long, narrow and thin, of a 

 pale green, serrated on the margins. Our Spiraeas will not 

 only bear removal to the garden but will flourish luxuriantly 

 under cultivation. The only objection to their introduction 

 to our borders is that they are apt to become too intrusive. 



A very slender form, with simple wand-like stems and 

 terminal spikes of small white flowers, may be found grow- 

 ing among the cracks and fissures of the rocky shores of 

 uStoney Lake and its numerous islets, rooting in sterile spots 

 tamong the few wild grasses that find nurture in the scanty 

 imould that is lodged in such crevices. This delicate little 

 shrub may be found in flower all through the hot months of 

 July and August. The Spiraeas belong to the Kose family. 

 The popular name, Meadowsweet, seems hardly appropriate 

 to our pretty shrub, as it has very little fragrance. But this 

 name for the whole genus is taken from the beautiful and 

 odoriferous British species, Spiraea Ulmaria. 



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