SPIR^'A VENUS'TA. 
BEAUTIFUL SPIRAEA. 
Class. 
ICOSANDRIA. 
Order. 
DI-PENTAGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
rosacea;. 
Native of 
Height, 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
Uncertain 
85 feet. 
July. 
Perennial. 
in 1840? 
No. 867. 
The flexible or rope-like stems of Spiraea fur- 
nished the idea for giving it a name, from speira, 
cord. Or, as some contend, the Greek spira, a 
pillar, is the foundation of the name, from the 
upright growth of the original plant. Venusta, 
elegant or beautiful, is quite applicable to the plant. 
Some of the most attractive species of Spiraea 
are of late introduction ; others, however, there are 
that have long been known to British gardens, 
particularly the Spiraea salicifolia, usually known 
as Spiraea frutex, under which name it passed with 
many of the older botanists ; Gerard and Parkin- 
son, however, call it Spiraea Theophrasti, on the 
authority of Clusius, who referred it to a plant so 
named by the celebrated Greek philosopher, The- 
ophrastus. Thus it will be seen that the family of 
plants under consideration may claim the honour 
of a name of no mean antiquity. Theophrastus 
lived three hundred years before the birth of our 
Saviour, the contemporary of Plato, Aristotle, and 
Ptolemy ; the successor of Aristotle in the school of 
the Peripatetics; no mean tutor, it may be readily 
allowed, seeing that he had at once two thousand 
