Addisonia 17 



(Plate 129) 



FORSYTHIA FORTUNEI 



Fortune^s Golden-bell 



Native oj China 

 Family Olbaceae OuvE Family 



Forsythia Fortunei Lindl. Gard. Chron. 1864: 412, 1864. 



An upright shrub of vigorous habit, the branches finally arching, 

 with the leaves often ternate, and the corollas with spreading twisted 

 segments. The bark of the younger branches is usually a yellow- 

 ish-brown, sometimes flushed with red. The opposite glabrous 

 leaves, are of a rich dark green above, paler beneath, have petioles 

 a quarter to a half inch long, and are usually simple, or frequently 

 ternate, especially on the vigorous shoots of the season. The 

 blades of the simple leaves are ovate, usually rounded at the base 

 and acute at the apex, the margin serrate, except at the very base; 

 in the ternate leaves, the terminal leaflet is similar, but with a 

 wedge-shaped base, while the lateral leaflets are much smaller, com- 

 monly elliptic, often entire, and are obtuse or acute at the apex. 

 The numerous yellow flowers, about an inch long, arise from scaly 

 buds in the axils of the leaves of the previous year; they occur in 

 twos or threes, rarely more or singly, on pedicels commonly less 

 than a quarter of an inch long. The erect sepals are shorter than 

 the tube of the corolla, rounded at the apex, and sometimes ciliate. 

 The deeply parted corolla is of a clear yellow, has four somewhat 

 ascending lobes which are linear-oblong, twisted, and with the apex 

 obtuse or sometimes retuse. The two stamens are short and in- 

 serted at the base of the corolla tube. The ovary is superior and 

 bears a slender style, varying in length in different flowers, with a 

 two-lobed stigma. The fruit is a two-celled dehiscent capsule. 



One of the first shrubs to bloom in the spring, coming into blos- 

 som at the New York Botanical Garden usually the last week in 

 April, and the first of the golden-bells to flower, commonly appear- 

 ing a day or two ahead of those of Forsythia intermedia, a hybrid 

 between this and Forsythia viridissima, the last of the trio to 

 bloom. The long wand-hke branches have the flowers more scat- 

 tered than in either of the other two, and generally of a paler color. 

 As a single specimen or in mass it is very effective, especially when 

 placed in front of tall evergreens, the brightness of the flowers 

 standing out vividly against the green. 



This species was discovered in the fall of 1861 near Peking, China, 

 by Robert Fortune. Considered here as a species, a treatment 

 certainly to be preferred from the standpoint of the horticulturist, 

 it is by some placed as a variety of Forsythia suspensa, the type of 



