160 



DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SHRUBS 



KEY TO THE SORBARIAS 



* Leaves odd-pinnate with doubly serrate blades ; blooming June to 



Sept. (A.) 

 A. Flower-cluster 5-12 inches long, June, July ; shrub 3-5 feet high ; 



blades 13-23. Mountain-ash Spire a (238) — Sorb^ria sorbi- 



folia. 

 A. Flower-cluster 3-5 inches long with larger flowers (^ inch broad), 



June, July ; 1-3 feet high ; blades 13-17. Lauge-floweued 



SouBARiA — Sorbaria grandiflora. 

 A. Flower-cluster 8-12 inches long and 8 inches broad, flowers only 



\ inch wide, July, Aug.; shrub to 8 feet; blades 15-21 ; twigs 



green. Lindley's Sorbaria — Sorbaria Lindleykna. 

 A. Flower-cluster 12 inches long and broad, flowers large (i-i 



inch), July to Sept.; shrub to 8 feet, very beautiful and 



hardy ; blades not so deeply or doubly cut as the other species. 



Aitchison's Sorbaria — Sorbaria Aitchisoni. 



* Leaves very fern-like, bipinnate, only 1-3 inches long with minute 



blades. Flower-clusters 2-5 inches long with flowers | inch broad. 



This is an American species found in California to Wyoming, but 

 rare in cultivation East, though hardy 

 to Massachusetts. Milfoil-leaved 

 Sorbaria — Sorbaria millefolium. 



Astilbe. Japan Astilbe (230) — 

 Astilbe jap6nica — is a beautiful tall 

 hardy herb often grown as a border 

 plant among Spireas and so like them 

 that it is frequently called Spiraea 

 japonica in the nursery catalogues. 

 For this reason, although an herb, it 

 is included. It has alternate several- 

 tinies-compound leaves with 3 to 30 

 notched narrow blades. The small 

 white flowers are in large terminal 

 clusters, panicles, in May and June. 

 It is generally cultivated for its forced 

 feathery flowers, in winter. Asa win- 

 dow plant it needs abundant water 

 when in bloom. Another plant similar 

 to tliis in appearance of both flowers 

 and foliage and often confused with it is 



Fig. 239. — Japan Astilbe. 



