PARK AND CEMETERY. 
193 
Dr. E. M. Moore, the venerable and esteemed 
president of the Board of Park Commissioners, has 
in view the purchase of two or three hundred acres 
of rich, alluvial land adjacent to Genesee Valley 
park for the purpose of establishing a comprehen- 
sive arboretum. We sincerely hope the doctor will 
succeed. John Dunbar. 
SPIRAEA AT ROSE BRAKE. 
A collection of spiraeas is one of our specialties 
at Rose Brake and we find no other class of shrubs 
so useful for furnishing bloom throughout the 
summer. 
A large and beautiful shrubbery may be made 
of spiraeas alone. Their diversity of foliage is re- 
markable; so many , shapes and sizes of leaves can 
be found among them. Some are very small and 
willow-like, as in S. salicifolia and the familiar S. 
Thunbergii. Others are wedge-shaped, as is S. 
cuneifolia; some have Hawthorn like foliage, some 
are plum-leaved, while some have handsome com- 
pound leaves which resemble the Mountain Ash. 
They mimic the foliage of so many plants that 
many of them have been named for this habit alone, 
as Spiraea chaemaedrifolia, S. sorbifolia, S. vaccini- 
folia; S. carpi naefolia and S. hypericifolia. We have 
planted all these species and many more, but with 
so little knowledge of their habits and the size to 
which they would ultimately attain, that some have 
over-topped and crowded out the smaller kinds. 
We hope to make a new Spiraea shrubbery next 
season, as, having studied them for a number of 
years, we feel that we can profit by our past mis- 
takes. I will describe here some of the most im- 
portant and beautiful of these shrubs, with their 
time of bloom and habit of growth. 
Earliest of all, and one of the most beautiful 
and valuable shrubs known to our gardens is Spiraea 
Thunbergii which here in our collection, is of grace- 
ful spreading habit and is about five feet in height. 
It has plenty of room to develop, but is planted in 
partial shade. Before the leaves come, about the 
middle of April, this spiraea will begin to show its 
tiny white pearl-like flower buds strung on slender- 
est, hair-like, lateral branches. In a few days 
these will expand into small white blossoms in 
corymbs, so freely produced as to cover the plant. 
They last a week or ten days, sometimes longer. 
Indeed a few flowers may still linger on the branches 
after the bush is in full foliage. These fine narrow 
leaves have a very graceful appearance. They are 
very abundant and are of a charming shade of light 
green. They remain on the bush sometimes as 
late as December, ' atid-this >spira;a- is one of the 
most valuable plants we have for autumnal effects. 
The foliage changes to soft delicate salmon and 
reddish orange shades, and retains this coloration 
a long time. 
The next spiraea to bloom in our shrubberies is 
S. arguta, which opens a day or two after S. Thun- 
bergii, of which it is a hybrid. It has very abun- 
dant and larger flowers than its parent, but the 
leaves are not so beautiful. They are shorter, and 
oblong obvate in shape, and do not color so finely 
in the fall. This is, however, a very valuable 
shrub for its beautiful early bloom. Spiraea pruni- 
folia, the plum-leaved spiraea, familiarly called 
Bridal Wreath, is the next to flower here, and is so 
well known that I need say little about it. Per- 
haps fifty S. prunifolias are planted to one of any 
other variety, and to very many people, the word 
spiraea has no other meaning. In our cemetery 
here the greaf ousljes of this spiraea are uniformly 
tied up about three feet from the ground with 
strong cord, so that they all look exactly alike. In 
our own shrubberies we let them alone and they 
have a graceful and slightly weeping habit of growth. 
This is one of the largest spiraeas and it turns in 
the fall to beautiful shades of salmon-pink and dead 
gold, at which season it is exceedingly ornamental. 
Spiraea Van Houttei bloomsabout the same time, 
as S. prunifolia and is of first importance in its 
family. It is becoming very generally planted and 
makes a very large spreading bush, from six to 
seven feet in height. In the spring its branches art 
weighted down under the wealth of clustered bloom, 
dazzlingly white, and covering the shrub like a 
heavy fall of snow. 
Spiraea crataegifolia is another shrub of large 
growth and blooms about a week later than S. 
Van Houttei. It produces its flowers as profusely, 
but they are not such a pure white. It is very fine 
when in flower and should be planted to keep up 
the succession of bloom. 
Spiraea bracteata blooms late in May or early in 
June and seems to be a spiraea of medium size with 
rounded leaves and very abundant white flowers in 
dense clusters. Many nurserymen sell this spiraea 
under the name of spiraea rotundifolia alba. It 
may readily be recognized by the bract borne near 
the middle of the flower stalk. 
Spiraea cantoniensis, also called S. Reevesii, is 
of medium size, and blooms late in May. The 
double form is a fine shrub and it remains a very 
long time in flower. This is one of the shrubs that 
does well in the shade. Indeed we find that many 
of its class do excellently well in a partly shaded 
situation near large trees. 
Spiraea cuneifolia has curious small wedge- 
shaped leaves and: dusters of pretty white flowers 
that open in June." It is of rather straggling habit 
of growth but is pretty and distinct and of medium 
