HARDY PLANTS. 
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S. astilboides is a Japanese species, growing 2ft. high, and 
with very graceful foliage and snowy-white flowers borne in 
drooping panicles in summer. Floribunda is a variety bearing 
large feathery panicles of white blossom and slightly dwarfer 
in growth. Suitable for moist borders and for the waterside. 
S. Filipendula flore pleno (Double-flowered Dropwort) is a 
native species of tufted dwarf habit, producing double white 
flowers in panicles a foot or more high in summer. Suitable for 
the mixed borders. S. kamtschatica (Syn. S. gigantea) grows 
6 to 8ft. high, has large pinnate leaves and feathery, white, 
fragrant flowers borne in large heads in summer. A noble 
plant for the waterside. S. palmata is a strikingly handsome 
Japanese species with palmately lobed leaves and crimson 
stems, and bright crimson flowers borne in large panicles in 
summer; height 2ft. Alba is a white, and elegans a pale 
pink form of it. All three are suitable for waterside or moist 
border culture. S. Ulmaria fl. pi. (Double White Meadow 
Sweet) is a double-flowered form of the native Meadow Sweet, 
growing 3 to 4 ft. high; aurea-picta is another variety, with 
golden blotched foliage. Both are suitable for the moist 
border or waterside. S. venusta grows 4 to 5ft. high and 
bears rosy flowers in June; and S. lobata (Queen of the 
Prairies) grows 4 to 6ft. high and bears rosy-carmine flowers 
in huge heads in June. Both do best in a shady moist border. 
S. longifolia, white, borne in long arching plumes ; Silver 
Sheaf, snowy-white ; and Snow Plume, ivory-white, are hybrids 
of great grace and beauty for growing in moist shady borders. 
The flowers in all cases are very beautiful subjects for cutting, 
and the last three ought especially to be grown for that 
purpose. A good, generous, moist soil suit the spiraeas best, 
and they should be planted if possible in autumn. Liberal 
top-dressings of decayed manure should be given every 
autumn, and where the plants are grown in borders likely to 
get dry in summer, copious supplies of water should be given. 
Increased by division in autumn or spring. See also the 
genus Astilbe. 
Spraguea. — The only species grown of this genus is 
S. umbellata, a somewhat tender Californian, tap-rooted 
perennial, belonging to the Purslane order (Portulacaceae). It 
grows about 6in. high, and bears rosy flowers in dense spikes 
in summer. The plant is pretty and interesting, and worth 
growing in mild districts in good, ordinary, well-drained soil 
on a sunny rockery or in a choice border. Seeds may be sown 
outdoors in April where the plants are required to flower the 
following year ; or in gentle heat in early spring, planting the 
seedlings out in May to flow'er in early autumn. 
Q 2 
