Floriculture. 
259 
ness in our climate in another season. We cannot better give an 
idea of this than by quoting the following from Mr. Van Houtte, 
{Hooey's Magazine, Vol 13, page 258.) 
" It is difficult to con- 
vey an impression of the 
beauty of this shrub from 
the specimen represent- 
ed in the engraving. 
Imagine a neat deep 
green, uprighi; bush, co- 
vered with thousands of 
snow white flowers, of 
the size represented, and 
as perfect as roses, and 
some idea may be formed 
of this new spiraea. 
Braving with impunity 
the severity of our hy- 
perborean latitude [Bel- 
gium] it must be con- 
sidered one of the great- 
est acquisitions for deco- 
rating the lawn or parterre. We do not know the native country 
of this shrub. M. Siebold, to whom we are indebted for its in- 
troduction, we learn found it cultivated in the Japan gardens, 
where it attained the hight of six or eight feet. Its native 
habitat is supposed to be Corea, or the north of China, and it is 
sometimes found growing in a wild state in the environs of cities, 
but evidently not indigenous. 
"According to M. M. Zuccarini and Ziebold, (F/. Japan,) it 
forms an upright and bushy shrub, \vith slender branches, which 
are covered with a smooth, ash-colored bark, which, when old, 
detaches itself in thin scales. The leaves are oval, rounded at their 
base, a little acute at the apex, downy beneath, and denticulated 
at the edge. The flowers, which appear in clusters of four to six, 
the entire length of the shoots, are perfectly snow-white, and per- 
fectly double. In shape they resemble the double Ranunculus 
aconitifolius; and their number and arrangement as well as the 
light green of the foilage, and neat habit, render it the most 
charming of hardy shrubs. 
" Its cultivation is the same as that of the Spiraea trilobata, 
and other well known kinds; and it is increased either by division 
of the root or by layers." — Genesee Farmer. 
Fig. 22 — Spirsea prunifolia. 
