A great trade is done in herbaceous Spiraeas. They are all easily grown in the open air in ordinary good garden soil, but several of them, like venusta, rose; gigantea (or kamtschatica), white; and lobata, rose carmine; as well as the common British white Meadow Sweet (S. Ulrnaria), like damp situations, and are largely used for planting by the sides of streams, ponds, lakes, etc. S. pal-mata (fig. 245), from Japan, with rosy flowers, is a charming plant; and S. Aruncus, the Goat's Beard, makes a splendid specimen, 3-5 ft. high, with feathery panicles of creamy-white flowers. S. Filipen-dula is an evergreen species with rosettes of deeply cut fern - like foliage resting on the ground, and with tall spikes of white blossoms during the summer. There is a fine double - flowered form of it, useful for cutting. The Shrubby Spiraeas are dealt with in Vol. IV, and the plant known as S. japonica in the next section.

Fig. 245. - Spiraea palmata.