NAT. ORDER. 
Spirosacece. 
SPIRM LOBATA. MEADOW SWEET. 
Class XII. Icosandria. Order V. Pentagynia. 
Gen. Char. Calyx., five-cleft, permanent. Stamens, ten to fifty, in- 
serted in the torus, lining the calyx along with the petals. Car- 
pels, solitary or several together, rare, connected at the base. — 
Seeds, two to six, fixed. Embryo, inverted. 
Spe. Char. Unarmed Shrubs, or perennial Herbs, with alternate 
branches. Leaves, usually simple, but sometimes pinnately cut. 
Mowers, white or reddish, never yellow. 
It is said that Spiraea took its name from speirao, to become 
spiral — in allusion to the fitness of the plants to be twisted into gar- 
lands. The genus contains plants of the shrubby and herbaceous 
kinds. The calyx is a one-leafed, five-cleft perianth, flat at the base, 
with acute segments, permanent ; the corolla has five petals, inserted 
into the calyx, and oblong-rounded ; the stamens have more than 
twenty filaments, filiform, shorter than the corolla, and inserted into 
the calyx ; anthers roundish ; the pistillum. has five or more germs ; 
styles as many, filiform, and about the length of the stamens ; stigmas 
prominently headed; the pericarpium is an oblong capsule, acumi- 
nate, compressed, two-valved ; the seeds are few, acuminate, small, 
fastened to the internal suture. 
The following are among the species cultivated for ornamental 
purposes and hedges. 
Spiraea salicifolia. Willow-leaved Spirsea. — This has stalks very 
tapering, rough towards the top, and covered with a reddish bark , 
Vol. in.— 142. 
