SPIRTE'A ARLEFO'LIA. 
BEAM-TREE-LEAVED SPIRAEA. 
Order , 
di-pentagynia* 
Natural Order. 
ROSACE M. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Habit. 
Introduced 
N. America 
8 feet. 
June, July. 
Shrub. 
in 1827. 
No. 1210. 
Spiraea, from the Greek Speira, from the twiggy 
branches of most of the species. 
The genus Spiraea, composed chiefly of shrubs, 
contains many that may he distributed over British 
shrubberies, with evident advantage to the general 
effect. They are, too, as well as conspicuous objects, 
very hardy, being natives of North America and the 
northern parts of Europe. Although they have no 
very prominent place amongst medicinal plants, 
they are esteemed as possessing some tonic proper- 
ties, and our British species, Spiraea ulmaria, or 
Meadow-sweet, has sometimes been used in tonic 
infusions. Spiraea ariaefolia forms a spreading, round 
bush, from six to eight feet high, and when covered 
with its light and airy flowers, backed by the darker 
foliage of evergreens, becomes a striking object in 
the imagery of a mass of shrubs — a fleecy pale 
cloud with the deep colouring of a thunder storm in 
the back ground. No delineation, however graphi- 
cal, can convey a just idea of these phantom-like 
masses of blossoms. 
This shrub may be abundantly increased by di- 
vision ; or from seeds, which it ripens freely. 
Class. 
1COSANDRIA. 
