Tas, 6631. 
STACHYURUS PRECOX. 
Native of Japan. 
Nat. Ord. Ternstra@mracem.—Tribe SAURAUJER. 
Genus Stacuyvnus, Sieb. et Zucc.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. i. p. 184.) 
Stacnyurus precox; frutex subscandens, glaberrimus, ramalis teretibus 
flagelliformibus, foliis pendulis petiolatis ovatis v. ovato-lanceolatis tenuiter 
acuminatis serrulatis nervosis, spicis breviter peduncalatis pendalis, floribus 
sessilibus bracteatis et 2-bracteolatis, sepalis 4 oblongis, petalis 4 late obovato- 
spathulatis concavis, staminibus ovario brevioribus, fructibus pedicello post 
antherum elongato instructis globoso-obovoideis. 
S. precox, Sieb. et Zucc. Fl. Japon. p. 43, t.18; Franch. et Savat. Enum. Pl. 
Japon. vol. i. p. 59; Carritre in Rev. Hortic. 1869, p. 200, cum ic. zylog. 
The genus Stachyurus is a very little known and very 
singular member of the same natural order as the Tea and : 
Camellia plants belong to, and was long supposed to con- 
sist of a single species, a native of Japan, that here figured. 
A second, 8. himalaicus, was found in the Nepalese Hima- 
laya by Wallich in 1820, and is included in his Catalogue 
of Indian Plants (n. 7417), where it is noted that it was 
examined by R. Brown, who failing to discover its affinities, 
ticketed it “* Frutex indeterminatus.” The same plant was 
rediscovered by Griffith in 1838 in Bhotan, and regarded 
by him as Ericaceous; and lastly by myself in 1849 in 
Sikkim, where it is common at 5000 to 8000 feet elevation. 
In habit and foliage the Japanese and Himalayan plants are 
almost identical, but the former has much larger flowers 
and longer petioles; the length of the pedicel of the fruit 
which has been regarded as a difference (being usually 
shorter in S. japonicus) is too variable in both to be relied 
upon. The most remarkable character in both species is 
that which misled botanists as to the affinity of the genus, 
namely, the definite number of stamens, in which Stachyurus 
JUNE lst, 1882. 
