Tas. 8032. 
PETASITES JAPONIOUS. 
Hastern Asia. 
Comeosita. ‘Tribe SENECIONIDES. 
Perasites, Gertn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 438. 
Petasites japonicus, Maxim. in “The Award of the thirty-fourth Demi- 
dovian Prize” (Russian), 1866, p. 212; separate edition, p. 17; Mig. Prol. 
Fl. Jap. (1865-67) p. 380; Fr. Schmidt, Reisen in Amurlande, 1868, p. 145 ; 
Franch. et Savat. Enum. Pl.-Jap. vol. i. (1875) p. 220; species foliorum 
radicalium magnitudine insignis. 
Herba perennis, robusta, dioica vel subdioica, preter inflorescentiam acaulis. 
Folia radicalia subcarnosa, orbicularia, basi reniformi-cordata, 2-3 ped. 
diametro, pedatinervia, sinuato-dentata, dentibus acutis, subtus albo- 
tomentosa, supra cano-floccosa, cito glabrescentia; petioli in plantis 
agrestibus interdum ultra 6 ped. alti et 2 poll. diametro. Jnflorescentia 
subdioica, 6-12 poll. alta, ante folia evoluta; scapus crassus, bracteis 
oblongis costatis vestitus. Capitula discoidea, numerosissima, dense 
corymbosa. Flores albi.—Petasitis vulgaris, Keempf., Amoen. Exot. 1712, 
p- 831. Tussilago Petasites, Thunb. F). Jap. 1784, p. 314, non Linn. 
Nardosmia japonica, Sieb. et Zucc. in Abhandl. Akad. Muench. vol. iv. 3 
(1846), p. 181, reprint, p. 57. Petasites albus, A. Gr. in Perry’s Exped. to 
China & Japan, vol. ii. (1857), p. 314, non Gaertn. Petasites spurius, 
Miq. in Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. vol. ii. (1865-66), p. 168, non 
Reichb. f. Petasites giganteus, Fr. Schmidt, ex Trautv. in Acta Horti 
Petrop. vol. viii. (1883), p. 433. Petasites japonicus, var. giganteus, Gard. 
Chron. 1897, vol. ii. p. 311; Nichols. Dict. Gard. Cent. Suppl. vol. ii. 
(1901), p. 591. Tama bouki, &e. Honzo Zufn, vol. xviii. tt. 4, 5, 6, et 7. 
Fouki, Somoku Zusetzn, vol. xvii. tt. 25 et 26. 
The synonymy of this plant is very much involved, 
through errors of transcription, and we are greatly in- 
debted to Mr. Boris Fedschenko, the Chief Botanist of the 
Imperial Botanic Garden, St. Petersburg, for assistance in 
unravelling it. 
The name Petasites signifies parasol, and was given in 
allusion to the large radical leaves of the species on which 
the genus was founded. All, or most of the species have 
this character in common, the leaves attaining their full 
development long after the flowering-period; and the 
leaves of P. japonicus exceed those of all others in their 
dimensions. Schmidt seems to have been the first to 
describe the fully formed leaves, and he states that in the 
Island of Saghalien the leaf-stalk is taller than a man, 
whilst the blade reaches a diameter of three feet. In the 
Kew Herbarium there is a nature-print of a leaf presented 
SEPTEMBER Ist, 1905, 
