be no doubt but that this country is the head-quarters of 
the genus, greatly surpassing the Himalaya, whence only 
forty species have been described. Europe may boast of 
a far greater number of recorded species; but the vast 
preponderance of these are closely allied forms of one 
type, as to the limits of which forms botanists have the 
most divergent opinions, whereas in China and India many 
types of the genus occur that have no allies at all in 
Europe. 
R. lasiostylus was raised at the Royal Gardens, Kew, 
from seeds received in 1889 from Mr. Henry, who during 
his residence at Ichang, on the Yangtse-kiang River, 700 
miles from its mouth, transmitted to Kew magnificent 
botanical collections abounding in novelties. The plant 
flowered in June, 1894, for the first time, and has proved 
to be perfectly hardy. 
_ Deser.—A suberect shrub, covered with slender, spread- 
ing, straight, or slightly curved prickles, which are stronger 
towards the base of the stem. Shoots four feet high, 
half an inch in diameter and very aculeate at the base, 
covered with a primrose-purplish bark, that turns nearly 
white in winter, young branches and petioles pubescent. 
Leaves pinnate, three to five inches long ; leaflets three to 
five, sharply, irregularly, doubly serrate, dark green 
and rugose above, young suffused with red; white tomen- 
tose beneath, with prominent pale, reddish nerves, and a 
setose midrib ; lateral leaflets one and a half to two and a 
half inches long, ovate, acute, base acute or rounded, ter- 
minal lobe much larger and broader, often 3-lobed ; petiole 
slender, red, prickly ; stipules lanceolate. Flowers in few- 
fid. subterminal corymbs ; pedicels one to one and a half 
inch long, decurved, red. Stamens an inch across the 
sepals, nodding. Sepals lanceolate, caudate-acuminate, 
brown-tomentose, or glabrescent; margins pale. Petals 
orbicular-spathulate, about half as long as the sepals, 
bright blood-red. Achenes crowded, woolly, dry, lacunose ; 
style long, straight, villous—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, Petal; 2, young, and 4, ri : , of ripé 
fruit of the natural a.” ee rr) a ee 
