130 7 THE ROSE FAMILY. [Prunus. 
6 inches, on short, leafy, or rarely leafless branches, on ‘the last year’s 
wood, Fruit small, nearly globular, black and bitter, with a rugged 
stone. 
In woods, thickets, and hedges, in northern and central Europe and 
Asia, from the Arctic regions to the Caucasus and Himalaya, but dis- 
appearing in south-western Europe. Scattered over various parts of 
Britain, but absent in southern England, and a great pine of Ireland. 
Fl. spring. 
II. SPIRZAA. SPIRAA. 
Herbs, with pinnate leaves, or, in exotic or introduced species, 
- shrubs, showing much diversity in foliage. Flowers usually small and - 
numerous, in elegant terminal cymes or panicles. Calyx free, 5-lobed. 
Petals 5. Stamens numerous. Carpels 8 or more, usually 5, quite 
free from the calyx, forming as many dry capsules, opening, when ripe, 
along the inner edge, and containing 2 or more seeds. . | 
A considerable genus, spread over the northern hemisphere both in 
the New and the Old World, but scarcely penetrating into the tropics. 
It is easily recognised by its dehiscent, capsular carpels, and among 
British Rosacew, by the numerous small flowers. 
Shrub, with simple, serrate leaves . : : , d : . 1. S. salterfolia. 
Herbs with pinnate leaves. 
Segments of the leaves few and large, white undemea .. 2 S.-Ulmaria. 
Segments of the leaves numerous and small, deeply toothed . 3. S. Filipendula. 
1. S. salicifolia, Linn. (fig. 801). Wzllow S.—A shrub of 4 or 5 feet, 
with rather slender branches, usually glabrous. Leaves undivided, 
oblong or lanceolate, serrate, green on both sides. Flowers pink, ina 
dense oblong or pyramidal terminal panicle. Carpels usually 5. 
A native of eastern Europe, Russian Asia and North America, long 
cultivated in our shrubberies, and found here and naturalised in moist 
woods in the north of England and south of Scotland. In some parts 
of North Wales it forms a principal ingredient in hedges, propagating 
readily by its creeping suckers. Many other shrubby species are 
cultivated in our gardens. 
2. S. Ulmaria, Linn. (fig. 302). Meadow-sweet, Queen of the Meadows. 
—Stock perennial, with erect, rather stout, annual stems, 2 or 3 feet 
high, usually glabrous and reddish. Leaves large, pinnate, with 5 to 
9 ovate or broadly lanceolate segments often 2 or 3 inches long, 
irregularly toothed, green above, soft. and whitish underneath, the 
terminal one deeply divided into three; besides which are several 
smaller segments along the common stalk. Stipules broad and toothed. 
Flowers small, of a yellowish white, sweet-scented and very numerous, - 
in compound corymbose cymes at the summit of the stems. Capsules ~ 
5 to about 8, very smal], and more or less spirally twisted. 
In meadows, on the banks of ponds and ditches, &c., throughout 
Europe and Russian Asia, except the extreme north. ‘Common in 
Britain. Fl. summer. 
3. S. Filipendula, Linn. (fig. 303). | Dropwort. —Stock perennial, 
the fibrous roots swollen here and there into oblong tubers. Stems 
erect, 1 to 2 feet high. Leaves chiefly radical or in the lower part of 
the stem, 3 to 5 inches long, with numerous (above 20) small, oval, 
