Tan. 6800. 
PHILLYREA ‘VILMORINIANA. 
Native of Asia Minor. 
Nat. Ord. Orracex.—Tribe OLEINER. 
Genus PuriiyreEa, Linn.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 677.) 
Puittyrra Vilmoriniana; frutex glaberrimus, foliis breviter petiolatis 5-6-polli- 
caribus oblongo- v. elliptico-lanceolatis acuminatis integerrimis basi cuneatis 
subtus punctulatis marginibus tenuiter recurvis, floribus ad axillas fasciculatis 
pedicellis gracilibus longioribus v. brevioribus, calyce ad medium 4-lobo lobis 
triangularibus acutis, corollz lobis lineari-oblongis obtusis, drupa ellipsoidea 
obtusa. 
P. Vilmoriniana, Boiss, et Balansa in Bal. Pl. exsice, 1866; Boiss. Fl. Orient. 
vol. iv. p. 37. 
P. laurifolia, Hort. 
The Phillyreas have been favourites in the gardens and 
shrubberies of England for nearly 300 years, since which 
time at least a dozen sportive forms have been cultivated, 
and usually combined under the three names of media, 
latifolia, and angustifolia; these are, however, connected 
by so many intermediate forms, that in the opinion of many 
botanists all may be regarded as varieties of one species 
that inhabits the whole Mediterranean region from Spain 
to Syria, and also Armenia and Anatolia. Such being the 
character and distribution of the genus as previously known, 
it was no little surprise to botanists when the indefatigable 
collector Bourgeau detected in 1866, in Pontus in Asia, 
a Phillyrea so manifestly different from all the forms 
previously known, that its claims to be regarded as a dis- 
tinct species could not be disputed. Such is the present 
plant, and what is of more interest to the horticulturist 
is, that it is by far the most beautiful shrub of any, with 
very large deep-green leaves, compared by Boissier to 
those of the Portugal Laurel, and that it appears to be 
perfectly hardy. Curiously enough, Dr. Masters, in the 
‘‘Gardener’s Chronicle,” October, 1883, p. 494, speaking 
_of it as “ P. Vilmoriensis, syn. laurifolia,” says, ‘* At a little 
distance we took it to be a Portugal Laurel.” 
FEBRUARY Ist, 1885. | 
