Tas. 6225. 
AINSLLAA WALKERI. 
Native of Hong-Kong. 
Nat. Ord, Composit#,—Tribe MUTISIACEZ. 
Genus AINSLIZA, DC, (Benth. et Hook. f., Gen. Plant., vol. ii., p. 493). 
AINSLLEA Wailkeri; glaberrima inflorescentia puberula, caule simplici erecto basi 
folioso, foliis erecto-recurvis lineari-ligulatis aristato-acuminatis a medio 
basin versus sensim angustatis apices versus pauci-spinuloso dentatis, pani- 
cula erecta elongata contracta, rachi rigida, ramis filiformibus infimis 
foliaceo-bracteatis apices versus floriferis, capitulis laxis patentibus et cernuis 
brevissime pedicellatis 2-3-floris, involucri bracteis ovato-lanceolatis acu- 
minatis, corolla alba lobis 5 linearibus obtusis, antheris roseo-purpureis, 
achzenio parvo superne setoso, pappi setis scabridis rigidis fuscis. 
A most graceful little plant, belonging to a very little 
known genus that inhabits the mountains of North-eastern 
India, China, and Japan, and of which only one species had 
been found in Hong-Kong until the discovery of the species 
here figured, by Capt. A. L. Walker when Brigade-Major in 
the island. Both species are instances of the wonderful 
localisation of the plants of that little island, which has been 
so well discussed by Bentham in his Flora of Hong-Kong. A. 
Sragrans, the kind already described, and which has broad, 
radical leaves, has been found on Victoria Peak, where it is so 
rare as to have been gathered by only one collector. The exact 
locality of A. Walkeri is not known, but as it has escaped the 
notice of such keen collectors as Champion, Hinds, Hance, 
Wright, Seeman, Wilford, and others, it cannot but be very 
rare and local. Though only containing twenty-nine square 
miles, the diminutive island of Hong-Kong contains upwards 
of 1000 native species of Flowering Plants and Ferns, which — 
is only one-third less than the British Islands possess. Many 
of the most striking of these are more rare even than the 
Ainslizas. Thus, speaking of the trees, Bentham states of 
_ one that only three trees of it are known in the island; of 
another that it was seen but once; and of a third that its 
existence is only known from a specimen picked out of a 
Arrit Isr, 1876, 
