Tas. 6486. 
LONICERA TomMENTELLA. 
Native of the Sikkim Himalaya. 
Nat. Ord. CapriroLt1acE®.—Tribe LoNICERER. 
Genus Lonicera, Linn. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 5.) 
LonicEra (Xylosteum) tomentella ; erecta, ramulis rigidis strictis foliisque subtus 
pilosis tomentellisve, foliis parvis breviter petiolatis ovato-oblongis obtusis 
coriaceis supra glabris v. puberulis opacis nervis inconspicuis, petiolo tomentoso, 
pedunculis axillaribus solitariis v. 2-nis brevibus tomentosis 2-floris, bracteis 
parvis lineari-oblongis recurvis, bracteolis in cupulam basin ovariorum amplec- 
tentem glabram connatis, floribus pendulis albis inodoris, ovariis liberis v. 
per paria connatis glabris, calyce breviter 5-dentato, corolle tubo anguste 
infundibulari piloso, limbi subzqualis lobis brevibus rotundatis, stylo glabro, 
baccis piriformibus globosis v. didymis, seminibus parvis. 
L. tomentella, Hook. f. and Thoms. in Journ, Linn. Soe. vol. ii. p. 167; C. B. 
Clarke in Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vol. iii. p. 12 (ined.). 
Honeysuckles abound in the Himalaya, where no fewer 
than twenty-two species have been detected, some of which 
attain an elevation of 16,000 feet above the sea-level. The 
Indian mountains are, in fact, the head-quarters of the genus, 
all Kurope containing but seventeen species; the Oriental 
region (from Greece to Affghanistan) possesses exactly the 
same number, according to Boissier’s ‘ Flora Orientalis ;” 
the Russian dominions from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean 
contain only thirteen, and North America about a dozen. 
I. tomentella is a native of the interior valleys of the 
Sikkim Himalaya, at elevations of 8,000 to 12,000 feet,. 
where I discovered it in 1849, forming a shrub ten to twelve 
feet high. The specimen figured was from a plant culti- 
vated at Kew from seeds, sent by me in the above-mentioned 
year ; it flowers annually in July. 
Dezscr. A rigid bush, ten to twelve feet high, with stiff 
spreading branches and slender usually densely softly 
- tomentose branchlets. eaves two-thirds to one and a half 
inch long, subdistichous, shortly petioled, ovate-oblong or 
APRIL Ist, 1880. 
