Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/286

 274 SPIRAEA Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza in Brief en an Men- delssohn (Berlin, 1785); Herder, Gott, einige Gesprache (Gotha, 1787) ; Sigwart, Der Spi- nozismus historisch und philosophisch erldutert (Tubingen, 1839); Kuno Fischer, B. Spinoza's Leben und Charakter (Mannheim, 1868) ; S. E. Ldwenhardt, Benedict von Spinoza in seinem Verhaltniss zur Philosophie und Naturfor- schung der neueren Zeit (Berlin, 1872); and Die Ethik des Sjnnoza^ with the original text, edited by Hugo Ginsberg (Leipsic, 1875). In 1875 a movement was commenced for erecting a monument to Spinoza at the Hague on the 200th anniversary of his death, Feb. 21, 1877. SPIIt K t (supposed to be from Gr. amiphv, to wind, some kinds being useful to form gar- lands), a genus of plants of the rose family, comprising about 50 species, widely distributed throughout the temperate and subarctic por- tions of the northern hemisphere. It includes both herbs and shrubs, some of which have received popular names, while for many culti- vated species the botanical name is in common use. The alternate leaves are simple or com- pound, with mostly manifest stipules; the small white or rose-colored flowers (sometimes dioecious) are in dense or long, loose, terminal panicles or cymes, or in axillary umbel-like corymbs, and consist of a short, persistent, five- cleft calyx, with five equal petals, numerous stamens, and mostly five pistils (two to twelve), I. Meadow Sweet (Spiraea snlicifolla). 2. Hardback (Spinea tomentosa). the ovaries to which become several-seeded pods or follicles in fruit. In some rare cases the parts of the flower are in fours instead of fives. -The most common native species, S. salici- fotia, is known as meadow sweet and queen of the meadows, and is abundant in moist meadows and on the margins of swamps, where .its slender, purplish, very brittle stems form clumps 3 ft. or more high ; the variable leaves, mostly wedge-lanceolate, are simply or doub- ly serrate, acute or obtuse, thin, and mostly smooth ; the flowers, in a crowded terminal panicle, are white or sometimes flesh-colored ; it remains in flower from July to September, and is sometimes cultivated. A hybrid variety, said to be produced from this and Douglas's meadow sweet (S. Douglasii), of the N. W. coast, has longer flower clusters, of a lively rose color, and is a garden favorite on account of its long continued bloom. Hardback and steeple bush are common names for S. tomen- tosa, found in low grounds from Canada to Georgia, but more abundant in New England than elsewhere ; the stems, smooth and dark bronze-colored when old, are 2 or 3 ft. high and thickly furnished with ovate or oblong serrate leaves, covered on the under surface with a very thick woolly down, which is whitish or slightly rusty, and in marked contrast with the very dark green of the upper surface ; the flowers, appearing in July and lasting till au- tumn, are in a dense, tapering, spire-like pani- cle, rose-purple, or rarely white. The plant is very astringent, and is used as a domestic remedy, and by physicians as a tonic and as- tringent in diarrhoaa and other bowel com- plaints. The largest of our native species, 8. opulifolia, grows in its different forms from Canada to the gulf states, and west to Oregon and California ; it is a rugged shrub, from 4 to 10 ft. high, with long recurved branches and a loose bark, the numerous layers of which, spontaneously separating, have caused it to be called nine-bark ; its roundish heart-shaped leaves are often three-lobed and doubly ser- rate ; the abundant white flowers are in um- bel-like clusters, and are succeeded by bladdery pods which turn purplish. The golden spiraea (S. aurea of the catalogues) is only a variety of this, in which the leaves when young are bright greenish yellow ; it is very showy in spring, while the foliage is fresh ; this is some- times used with good effect for ornamental hedges. Among the many shrubby species in cultivation the most frequent are : the plum- leaved spiraoa (8. prunifolid), from Japan, with smooth lanceolate leaves, and in the form gen- erally cultivated very double pure white flow- ers ; Reeves's spiraea (S. Reevesiana of the catalogues, but properly S. lanceolata), from China, with numerous umbels of white flow- ers; St. Peter's wreath or Italian May, with long recurved branches crowded with small sessile umbels of white flowers ; Fortune's spi- raea (S. Fortunei or callosa}, from China, with long, slender stems bearing flat corymbs of rose-pink or white flowers ; S. ari&folia, from Oregon, with terminal panicles of yellowish white flowers; and Thunberg's spirsea (8. Thuribergii), from the mountains of Japan, a dwarf species, with small flowers in clusters of three. The tall Chinese shrub, with flowers