184 HARDY OKNAMENTAL 



branched shrub, growing 4 feet or 5 feet high, with oval, 

 Plum-like leaves and white flowers. There is a double- 

 flowering variety named S. prunifolia flore-pleno, which is 

 both distinct and beautiful. 



S. botundifolia. — Kound-leaved Spiraea. Cashmere, 

 1839. A slender-branched shrub, having downy shoots 

 and round, blunt leaves, flowering in July. 

 X S. salicifolia. — Willow-leaved Spiraea. Europe, and 

 naturalized in Britain. An erect-growing, densely-branched 

 shrub, with smooth shoots, which usually spring directly 

 from the ground. Leaves large, lanceolate, smooth, doubly 

 serrated, and produced plentifully. Flowers red or rose- 

 coloured, and arranged in short, thyrsoid panicles. It flowers 

 in July and August. S. salicifolia carnea has flesh- 

 coloured flowers ; S. salicifolia paniculata has white flowers ; 

 and S. salicifolia grandiflora has pink flowers as large 

 again as the type. S. salicifolia alpestris (Mountain 

 Spiraea) grows fully 2 feet high, with lanceolate, finely- 

 toothed leaves and loose, terminal panicles of pink or 

 red flowers. Prom Siberia, and flowering in autumn. 

 S. salicifolia latifolia (syn S. carpinifolia), the Hornbeam- 

 leaved Spiraea, is a white-flowered variety, with leaves 

 resembling those of the Hornbeam. Prom North America. 

 >V S. sokbifolia. — Sorbus-leaved Spiraea. Siberia, 1759. 

 A handsome, stout species, 4 feet high, with large, pinnate, 

 bright-green leaves, and small, white, sweetly-scented 

 flowers produced in thyrsoid panicles. 



* S. Thonbbegii. — Thunberg's Spirasa. Japan. The white 

 flowers of this species smell somewhat like those of the 

 Hawthorn, and are freely produced on the leafless, twiggy 

 stems in March or early in April, according to the state of 

 the weather. They are borne in axillary clusters from buds 

 developed in the previous autumn, and are very welcome in 

 spring, long before the others come into bloom. The bush 

 varies from 1 foot to 3 feet high, and is clothed with 

 linear-lanceolate, sharply serrated leaves. 



