112 BOTANICON SINICUM. 
which Bunge saw and which he describes as bacca maxima de- 
pressa, asperma, since it always contains seeds, whilst the other 
is propagated by grafting only. 
It seems to me that Bentham’s Flora hongkongensis can be 
adduced as an example of short, popular and characteristic de- 
scriptions of plants, and, although the precision and correctness 
in exhibiting the details is due to the experience of the eminent 
author, a considerable portion of the information about Hongkong 
plants has certainly been furnished by the collectors, and chiefly 
by Dr. Hance, who for many years has zealously studied the Flora 
of the island. 
Occasionally the most experienced botanists are liable to errors 
when working on dried imperfect material, whilst on the other 
hand persons even with a modest stock of botanical knowledge, 
but having the opportunity of observing plants in their native 
countries, are enabled to clear up dubious botanical questions and 
to correct incontestably statements of professional authors. 
In Turezaninow’s Enum. plant. Chine bor. (1887) and Maxi- 
mowicz’s Index Flore pekin. (1859) we find two Peking species 
of Catalpa noticed, viz.: C. syringefolia Turez., and C. Bunget 
C.A.Mey. In D.C. Prodr. IX, 226 the first is considered @ 
variety of the latter, distinguished by the form of the leaves. 
But whoever has seen these trees in Peking, where they are 
common, will be easily convinced that they constitute one species 
only, and that even a variety cannot be admitted, the leaves on 
the same tree being always very variable in shape, heart-shaped, 
entire, lobed or laciniated, triangular, sinuate, etc. 
The same may be said of Sesamum indicum L., much cul- 
tivated in the Peking plain. In D.C. Prodr, IX, 250 three varie- 
ties of this cultivated plant are distinguished, according to the 
form of the leaves (grandidentatum, subdentatum, subindivisum). 
But this distinction is also untenable. Here at Peking at least 
we frequently see on the same plant entire, lobate, or trisected 
leaves. I have sent such specimens to St. Petersburg. 
The Chinese in the Northern provinces cultivate a beautiful 
yellow Rose, very prickly, with small pinnated leaves. I have 
been told that it occurs in a wild state in the mountains of North- - 
China and Southern Mongolia. ‘This Rose figures in Bunge’s 
