238 



THE ROSE FAMILY. 



3. Birdcherry Prunus. Prunus Padus, Linn. (Fig. 295.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1383.) 



A shrub of 6 or 8 feet, or sometimes 

 a small tree, always glabrous. Leaves 

 oval or ovate-lanceolate, finely toothed, 

 and slightly cordate at the base. Flowers 

 white, rather small, in loose, often droop- 

 ing racemes of 2 or 3 to near 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 disappearing in south- 

 western Europe. Scattered over various 

 parts of Britain, but absent or rare in 

 southern England, and a great part of 

 Ireland. Fl. spring. 



Fig. 295. 



II. SPIR2EA, SPIE^A. 



Herbs, with pinnate leaves, or in exotic 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 3 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 recognized by its dehiscent, capsular carpels, and among 

 British Rosacea, by the numerous small flowers. 



Leaves with few large segments, white underneath . . . . 1. Meadow S. 

 Leaves with numerous small segments, deeply toothed ... 2. Common S. 



Several North American and Asiatic shrubby species of Spircea are 

 cultivated in our shrubberies and flower-gardens, and among them the 



