Ox\ SOME MOUNTAIK PLANTS FROM NORTHERN CHINA. 139 



Gold-coin Pine, a name I imagine to be derived from the autumnal 

 colour of the discs of leaves), which is in the nurseries here, and which 

 I have seen in the hills west of Mngpo, a really fine forest tree, not so 

 spiral in figure as the European kind, but more like a Cedar, except 

 that the branches do not stratify : I noticed it first about twelve 

 years ago." And this present year — "I cannot tell how far the 

 Larches are indigenous here. All I know for certain is that large 

 planks of the tree Lo-ye-sung* (I suppose simply a descriptive name= 

 Deeiduons Pine) are brought down our river — i.e.^ from the south- 

 and south-west, probably from the Kiang-si and Gran-hwuy frontier ; 

 and that, having made use of them, I know to my cost that they are, 

 like their European congener, given to warp and twist almost end- 

 lessly. The wood looks admirable — a fine close-grained yellow pine." 

 There can, I suppose, be little doubt that P. davurica is the tree 

 referred to in both these cases. Its southward extension to N". 

 lat, 39*^ is interesting geographically. As with the Yews, the ex- 

 treme resemblance of the difi'erent species of Larch points to a very 

 late diff'erentiation from a parent type. 



Iris (^loniris) ruthenica, Ait. On the top of the mountain. 



Allium {Anguinum) Victorialis, Linn. " Plante qui croit en 

 abondance an sommet du Po-hua-shan. Malheureusement, je n'ai 

 pu trouver de fleurs ecloses. Toute la plante sent I'ognon.' Though 

 very immature, with an unopened spathe, I think the determination 

 is scarcely doubtful. 



.Convallaria maialis, Linn. 



Polygonatiim sibiricum, Red. I have before pointed out (Journ, 

 Linn. Soc. Bot. xiii., 88) that the difference supposed to exist 

 between Royle's P. cirrhifoUum and Kunth's P. chinense are 

 apparently imaginary only. I now follow Herr v. Herder (Plant. 

 Lomonossow, in Act. hort. Petrop. i., 193), in reducing the Chinese 

 plant to the Siberian species. 



Polygonatiim officinale, All. All three of the above grow in the 

 shaded forest glades of the mountain, 



Veratri sp. ''Croit en abondance au sommet du Po-hua-shan. 

 Fruits de I'annee passee. Les Chinois rapportent que les betes 

 meurent quand elles broutent les jeunes pousses, mais les feuilles 

 developpees ne sont pas dangereuses," A poor specimen only, with 

 withered fruit in a single raceme, quite indeterminable, but 

 apparently different from any of the forms distinguished of late years 

 by Russian botanists. 



Hierochloe dalmrica, Trin. The panicle less contracted than in 

 Maximowicz's specimens from the Schilka, and others gathered at 

 Jehol by David, almost exactly like that of //. horealis, R, and Sch., 

 but I think it belongs to Trinius's species. They are all difficult of 

 determination. On the summit of the mountain. 



* Literally " Drop-leaved Pine,'' the name given Dr, Bretschneider by his 

 Chinese iijfonnants. 



