Tas. 87 16. 
DISANTHUS cERcIDIFOLIA. 
Japan. 
HAMAMELIDACEAE. 
Disantuus, Maxim. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. i. p. 1005. 
Disanthus cercidifolia, Maxim. in Bull. Acad. Pétersb. vol. x. p. 485 (1866) ; 
Sargent in Forest Flora of Japan, t. 15; Mottet in Rev. Hort. 1910, 
p. 362, fig. 148 ; Schneider, Laubholzk, vol. i. p. 425; Bean, Trees d Shrubs, 
vol. i. p. 499; species unica. 
Frutex 2-3-metralis ; rami graciles, patuli; ramuli brunnei, glabri, lenticellati. 
Folia decidua, alterna, glaberrima, late ovata vel subrotundata, acuta vel 
obtusa, basi cordata vel truncata, margine integra, 5-nervia, 5-10 cm. 
longa, 4-8 em. lata, primum intense viridia auctumno exacto aurantiaco- 
kermesina ; petiolus 2°5-6cm. longus. Flores bini, sessiles, arcte sedentes, 
pedunculo communi 6 mm. longo auctumno jam adulto a ramulo annotino 
gemmato suffulti. Calyx 5-lobus; lobi ovato-oblongi, recurvi. Petala 5, 
subulata, sordide kermesino-purpurea, 6-9 mm. longa. Stamina 5, calycis 
lobis parum breviora, Styli 2. Capsula dura, demum lignosa, obovoidea, 
2-locularis. Semina in quoque loculo plura, intense brunnea, nitida, 
3 mm. longa.—W. J. Bran. 
Disanthus is an interesting genus of the Hamameli- 
daceae, established in 1866 by Maximowicz on the 
species now figured. So far as is known at present it is 
monotypic. From the other genera of this natural 
family, Disanthus is well dist nguished by the arrange- 
ment of the flowers, which are sessile and set, base 
to base, on two-flowered shortly peduncled capitula. 
D. cercidifolia is described by Sargent as being not rare 
in the Kisogawa valley in Central Hondo, covering steep 
hillsides with thickets sometimes a quarter of an acre in 
extent. It has been in cultivation about twenty years, 
but does not appear to have blossomed often. For the 
flowering twigs now figured we are indebted tv Mr. H. W. 
Grigg of Cann House, near Plymouth, where, in a very 
extensive and admirably cultivated collection of choice 
trees and shrubs, a healthy plant about 6 ft. high 
flowered last October. The flowers are of a lurid, un- 
JuNnE, 1917, 
