[Plats 2.] 



THE PALMATE-LEAVED SPIRAEA 



(SPIE^EA PALMATA.) 



A Hardy Herbaceous Plant from Japan, belonging to the Order Rosacea. 



Specific Character. 



SPIBiEA PALMATA. — A glabrous, erect under-shrub. Branches slender, deeply grooved, and as well as the stipules, 

 petioles, and peduncles, of a bright crimson-purple colour. Leaves petioled ; petiole three to seven inches long, 

 either glaiidular towards the apex, or furnished with several minute glands ; serrated leaflets ; terminal or solitary 

 leaflet four to five inches diameter ; five to seven lobed ; lobes ovate-lanceolate, acute, five to seven nerved ; upper- 

 most leaves three-lobed. Stipules erect, gland toothed. Corymbs numerous, terminating the branches, six to 

 twelve inches across, much branched. Flowers, and all their parts, wholly of a crimson colour, small, one-eighth 

 of an inch diameter, shortly pediceled. Calyx lobes very small, broadly oblong, obtuse recurved. Petals nearly 

 obicular, concave. Stamens very numerous ; filaments capillary, flexuous. Anthers very minute. Carpels four to 

 six, hairy, with short recurved styles, and capitate glandular stigmas. 



Botanical Magazine, t. 5726. 



rpHIS is undoubtedly one of the finest hardy herbaceous plants that has made its appear- 

 -L anee for some years. Its immense dense corymbs of deep crimson flowers, extremely 

 beautiful in themselves, are so distinct that they form a pleasing contrast to any other 

 flowers with which they may be associated. On this account alone,, independent of their 

 beauty, grown out in the open border in situations where it will succeed, it is one of the best 

 hardy plants we possess for pot culture, for even when grouped with the choicest subjects 

 such as rare Orchids, it has a most telling effect. Those who had the good fortune to see 

 the large specimen — five feet high, and six feet across — exhibited by Mr. Strathan, Waddon 

 House, Croydon, at the Regent's Park, a few years back, will not easily 'forget its gorgeous 

 appearance. The plant is alike handsome in both leaf and flower in either a small or a large 

 state, but it is in the shape of medium-sized examples that it will be found most useful when 

 cultivated in pots and grown with a little warmth, similarly to the nearly allied Hoteia 

 Japonica. But with our present subject we do not think it would be advisable to submit 

 it to so much heat as Hoteia J aponica will bear, as in the case of all hardy flowers possessing 

 naturally high colours too much excitement by subjecting to strong heat has a tendency 

 to cause the flowers to open deficient in colour. The plant grows freely in good ordinary 

 garden soil, porous, and moderately light in texture, fairly enriched with manure. It is 

 increased by division of the crowns, best effected in spring, just as the plants begin to 



