umbels of D. tangutica are smaller than those of D. retusa, 
the flowers are more densely packed, and the perianth is 
more highly coloured. The material from which our 
plate was prepared was kindly furnished by Mrs. Wood- 
ward of Arley Castle, near Bewdley, with whom it 
flowered in April, 1919. It was introduced to this 
country in 1914 from Kansu by Mr. Reginald Farrer 
under his number 271, and is described in his notes as a 
dense, low bush about a foot high and through, found 
dotted in open turf on slopes 9,000—10,000 feet above 
sea-level, in deep calcareous loam or vegetable mould. 
To Kew Mrs. Woodward presented two small plants 
which up to the present are thriving well in sandy loam. 
But Daphnes are notoriously difficult shrubs to keep 
permanently in good health, and it is too soon yet to 
say with certainty how D. tangutica will adapt itself to 
the climate of the Thames valley. There would appear 
to be little to fear in regard to its perfect hardiness at 
Bewdley where the original seed was sown in October, 
1914, and germinated in March, 1915. The plant raised 
stood the frost of 1916-17 perfectly out of doors, and 
flowered for the first time in March, 1918. In 1920, 
Mrs. Woodward informs us, one plant barely eighteen 
inches high bore fifty heads of blossom about an inch 
and a half across, while another only a foot high had 
ten bunches of flowers. | 
Dxscription.—Shrub, probably not exceeding 3-4 ft. high, densely branched 
and of sturdy rounded form; young shoots stout, greyish-brown, at first 
clothed with pale grey bristles, at length becoming nearly glabrops. Leaves 
persistent, leathery, oblanceolate or narrowly elliptic, usually emarginate at 
the apex, narrowed at the base to a short stout petiole, margin slightly 
revolute, glabrous on both surfaces, dark rather glossy green above, paler and 
dull beneath, 1-3 in. long, }-3 in. wide. Flowers in terminal umbels 1} in. in 
diameter, opening in April or May from the axils of oblong, pointed, ciliate but 
otherwise glabrous bud-scales. Perianth glabrous, 4-lobed, with a tubular 
base, rosy-purple outside; tube § in. long; limb } in. wide; lobes ovate 
obtuse, white inside, two of them stained with purple towards the tips. 
Stamens 8, in two superposed series of 4 each; anthers yellow, about thrice as 
long as the filaments. Pistil 4 in. long; ovary glabrous, ovoid; style very 
short and thick ; stigma capitate, glabrous or nearly so. Berry red, fleshy, 
ovoid-globose, 2 in, long, } in. wide. 
Tas. 8855.—Fig. 1, flowers laid open, showing stamens and pistil; 2, pistil :— 
both enlarged. 
