simultaneously. In wild specimens there is much variation 
in the size of the sterile bracts, and that this is nearly as 
marked in cultivated examples will be realised when the 
cordate bract in the upper right-hand corner of our plate, 
which was drawn from Sir E. Fry’s specimen, is compared 
with those drawn from Miss Willmott’s spray. The only 
other known species of the genus are S. integrifolia, Oliv., 
and S. hypoglauca, Rehder ; both are readily distinguished 
from S. hydrangeoides by their larger, entire leaves. S. 
hydrangeoides does not flower freely in the British Islands; 
probably it requires more sun than our climate usually 
affords. The fact that its flowering was reported from 
several places in 1912 may well have been the result of the 
heat of the previous year. In the Eastern United States, 
however, it seems to flower as freely as Hydrangea petiolaris 
does with us. It likes a good loamy soil. 
Description.—Shrub, deciduous, climbing by means of 
aerial roots and attaining the tops of trees up to 40 ft. high; 
twigs at first covered with loose down, soon becoming 
glabrous. Leaves opposite, exstipulate, membranous, broadly 
ovate or nearly orbicular, acute or acuminate, base truncate 
or cordate, coarsely dentate, 2-54 in. long, 13-54 in. wide, 
dull green above, with short adpressed hairs chiefly on the 
main-nerves and midrib, beneath rather pale, pubescent on 
the midrib and in the angles between midrib and main- 
nerves ; lateral nerves 5-7 along each side; petiole 1$-4 in. 
long, sparingly pubescent. owers in a cymose terminal 
corymb, 4-8 in. wide; the perfect flowers very small and 
crowded ; the sterile flowers confined to the margin of the 
corymb, each reduced to a solitary creamy-white, mem- 
branous, reticulately veined, ovate or cordate bract, acute 
or rounded at the tip, terminating the principal ramifica- 
tions, ;~1} in. long and 2-12 in. wide. Caly« turbinate, 
5-lobed, loosely pubescent; lobes triangular. Petals 5, 
white, roundish ovate, concave, +), in. long. Stamens 10, 
far exserted, } in. long; filaments glabrous; anthers yellow. 
Carpels 4-5 ; styles coalescing ; stigma 4—5-lobed. Capsule 
turbinate, 10-ribbed, } in. long ; pedicels pubescent. 
Fig. 1, bud; 2, flower with petals aa ; seltl 4. aborked 
flower :—all enlarged, ” removed; 3, calyx and pistil; 4, 
