to the citations which accompany our description, the 
authors quoted supply others, which it is needless to 
repeat here; it is sufficient to remark that it has been 
confused more than once with the common W. sinensis, 
Sweet, and the not unfamiliar W. brachybotrys, Sieb. & 
Zuce. It was first seen in this country under the latter 
name, in the Japanese section of the International 
Horticultural Exhibition held at Chelsea in May, 1912, 
and in the following year was acquired from a Yokohama 
nursery for the Kew collection. According to Mr. 
Wilson, W. venusta is cultivated here and there in temple 
gardens in Japan as the “ Shira-fudzi,” or White 
Wistaria ; but the colour of the flowers would appear to 
vary, for a specimen collected by Mr. R. Oldham, “ wild 
on hills near Nagasaki,” in 1863, which undoubtedly 
belongs to this species, is noted by him as having bluish- 
violet flowers. The plants exhibited in 1912 were 
shown as shrubs grown in vases; in the Kew collection, 
however, it thrives quite well in the open, and flowers 
annually in May and June. It makes a very welcome 
and beautiful addition to the popular group of hardy 
flowering climbers and, like other members of the genus, © 
requires a good rich soil and the sunniest position 
available. The flowers are frequently more or less 
“* double.” 
_ Descriprion.—Shrub, climbing ; final shoots drying purplish-black, glabrous 
in their second year; bud-scales wide-ovate, mucronate, the outer about } in. 
long and wide, firmly papery, brown, glabrous with finely ciliolate margins, the 
inner silky-pubescent on the back; young lateral floriferous shoots softly 
tomentose, up to 7in. long. Leaves appearing along with the flowers, rather 
longer than the flowering shoots ; common rachis and petiolules ;1,—} in. long, 
softly tomentose ; leaflets 6-jugate, opposite or the lower nearly opposite, oblong- 
elliptic or oblong-ovate, rather gradually and acutely acuminate, 13-3 in. long, 
3-1} in. wide, when young membranous, shortly pubescent on both surfaces, 
faintly reticulate, lateral nerves slender, about six along each side the mid-rib. 
Racemes pendulous at the ends of young twigs, lax-flowered ; pedicels slender, up 
to 1§ in. long, softly pubescent ; bracts soon falling, linear-spathulate, caudate 
acuminate, about } in. long, pubescent. Calyx campanulate, shortly pubescent ; 
tube 4 in. long ; lobes triangular-subulate, about ,', in. long, pubescent. Corolla 
white, about iy in. across; standard suborbicular, about 1 in. wide, shortly 
clawed, 2-auriculate at the base of the blade; wings about 2 in. long. Ovary 
hairy. Pod compressed, densely velvety. : ; 
TAB. 8811.—Fig. 1, part of a leaf; 2, calyx, stamens and pistil ; 3, base of 
standard, showing the auricles; 4, a wing-petal; 5, a keel-petal; 6, pistil :— 
all enlarged. 
