Sikkim plant ‘“ pyrolaefolia,” that word being inscribed, 
in his own handwriting, on the original sheet in the 
herbarium at Kew. When drafting the account of the 
Ericaceae for the ‘Flora of British India’ in 1882, 
Mr. C. B. Clarke made use of this indication and 
described the Sikkim Gaultheria as G. pyrolaefolia, Hook. f. 
No reference is made by Clarke to the misreading of 
Hooker’s name by Miquel or to its employment by the 
latter to designate a plant from Japan. Nor was there 
any obligation to do so, since a critical examination of 
the available material of both plants proves that the 
Japanese and the Sikkim plants are very distinct species. 
It is found too that the Chinese plant now figured is 
equally distinct from the two with which it has been 
nominally confused. In the Sikkim plant, G. pyrolae- 
folia, Hook. f. ex C. B. Clarke, the leaves are few in 
number and are situated near the end of the twigs, 
rounded-obovate or nearly orbicular ; the anther append- 
ages are shorter than the anther-cells; the style is much 
shorter than the corolla-tube and the ovary is glabrous. 
In the Japanese plant, G. pyroloides, Hook. f. and Thoms. 
ex Miq., the leaves are numerous, more or less elliptic ; 
the anther-appendages are longer than the anther-cells ; 
the style reaches the top of the corolla; the ovary and 
fruit are glabrous as in the Sikkim species. Our Chinese 
plant, G. cuneata, Bean, differs from the other two both 
in its narrowly obovate to oblanceolate leaves and in its 
densely hairy ovary and fruit. It is a neat dwarf ever- 
green, perfectly hardy so far as our present experience 
goes. The plant from which our figure was prepared 
was raised at Kew from seed sent to Kew from the 
Arnold Arboretum in 1909. The seed had been collected 
the previous autumn in Western Szechuan by Mr. E. H. 
Wilson, who states that the plant grows in woodlands, 
nearly always on rocks. It thrives under the same 
conditions as the other Gaultherias, which love a moist 
peaty soil. Propagation is easily assured by its plentiful 
seeds. The Gaultherias are interesting on account of 
their curious fruits. Commonly spoken of as berries, 
and to all appearance such, they are in reality 5-lobed 
capsules almost completely enveloped when ripe by the 
calyx which with age enlarges, becomes fleshy, and is 
