210 



A CHINESE STF:PRANANDRA. 

 By H. F. Hance, Ph.D., F.L.S., &c. 



The genus SUphancmdra was established about forty years ago 

 by the late Professor Zuccarini, of Munich, on a plant brought 

 from Japan by Dr. von Siebold, and which had been originally 

 described by Thunberg under the name of Sjdrcpa incisa.^^ 

 Zuccarini's description f was accompanied by a very good analytic 

 plate, but I believe the plant itself has never to this day been 

 figured. No additional species had been added to the genus, 

 notwithstanding active collecting in Japan, until three years ago, 

 when M. Franchet found two new ones amongst Dr. Savatier's 

 collections \ ; but the genus still remained exclusively restricted to 

 Japan and the adjoining coast of Korea. It was therefore with 

 some pleasure that, in looking over lately a small set of Chinese 

 plants reeeived from Mr. T. L. Bullock, I encountered a specimen 

 which Mr. F. B. Forbes and he had taken for Spiraa callosa, Thunb., 

 but which I at once saw to be an uudescribed Stephanandra. Of 

 this a diagnosis is subjoined, briefer than usual, because I believe 

 the flowers to be singularly alike in all the species. M. Franchet 

 describes his S. gracilis and .S'. Tmiakm as having fifteen stamens, but 

 M. Maximowicz asserts § that in the last-named, which alone of the 

 two he had examined, there are twenty. I have not been so fortu- 

 nate as to see either. The present species agrees with Zuccarini's 

 original one in its decandrous flowers, but it is distinguishable at a 

 glance by its larger, differently shaped, and less-incised leaves, and 

 by its ampler and more compound inflorescence. 



Stephanandra chinensis, sp. nov. — Kamulis flexuosis cortice 

 glabro pallide brunneo obductis, stipulis lineari-oblongis acutis 

 ciliatis, foliis ovato-lanceolatis inaequaliter duplicato-serratis apice 

 in acumen argute serratum exquisite attenuatis 6-7-costulatis supra 

 laete viridibus sparsim pilosuhs subtus pallidis magis praesertim 

 secus nervos pilosis 2-2|^ poll, longis f-1 poll, latis petiolo bilineali 

 pubescente, floribus in racemos compositos multifloros folium 

 aequantes dispositis circ. 4 millim. diametro decandris ejusdem 

 omnino structurae ac S. Jiexuosm, pedicellis flore parum longioribus 

 bractea lineari duplo breviore stipatis. 



In prov. An-hwei, circa urbem Wu-hu, Maio 1881, leg. am. 

 T. L. Bullock. (Herb, propr. n. 21998). 



* Fl. jap. 21.j. 



t Abhandl. Miincb. Akad. 2 Kl. iii. 730, t. iv. 2. 



\ Enum. ])1. j;ip. ii. '-V-Vll. 



§ Acta hort. Petiop. vi. 218. 



