ROSACK-E. 125 



Tribe I.— SPIR^IDiE. 



Shrubs or herbs, with simple or interruptedly pinnate leaves. 

 Calyx widely bell-shaped. Petals white. Stamens indefinite. Carpels 

 in a single whorl, generally 5, but sometimes reduced to 1 or 2. 

 Fruit consisting of follicles, dehiscent on the inner suture, or 

 splitting into 2 valves. Styles terminal. Seeds 2 to 6 (more rarely 

 1 to 10) in each carpel. 



GENUS II.— S FIR MA. Linn. 



Plowers perfect or sometimes polygamous. Calyx-tube concave 

 or bell-shaped, 5-cleft, persistent, the segments separate in festiva- 

 tion, without an epicalyx. Petals 5, obovate or roundish, with 

 short claws inserted in the throat of the calyx, spreading. Stamens 

 10 to 20, m.ore rai'ely 30 to 60, exserted. Carpels 5, more rarely 

 3 to 12, free, sessile or shortly stipitate. Fruit of as many follicles 

 as there are carpels. 



Shrubs with simple, entire, serrate, or lobed leaves, with or 

 without stipules ; or hei'bs with interruptedly-pinnate or palmate 

 leaves with stipules ; or herbs with tripinnate leaves and no 

 stipules. 



The derivation of the generic name of these plants is said to be from speira, a cord, 

 in reference to the flexibility of the branches of some of the species, or from the Greek 

 a-mipaw (speirao), I become spiral, or wreath, in allusion to the titness of the plants to 

 be twisted into garlands. 



Section I.— EU-SPIR^A. Torrei/ & Grmj. 



Shrubs with entire or serrate shortly stalked exstipulate leaves. 

 Flowers jierfect, in corymbs or panicles. Ovaries free at the base, 

 containing numerous ovules. Ovules pendulous. Disk combined 

 with the tube of the calyx, free at the margin, mostly crenate, 

 with glandular teeth or lobes. Follicles not inflated. Seeds gene- 

 rally with a loose membranous testa, attenuate at each end. 



SPECIES I.— S PI R^ A SALICIFOLIA. Linn. 

 Plate CCCCXIV. 

 A bushy shrub, producing numerous suckers. Leaves shortly- 

 stalked, elliptical or lanceolate-elliptical, sharply serrate at the 

 margins, glabrous beneath, without stipules. Flowers in dense 

 terminal panicles, which have the branches short and with the 



