8 SPICILEGIA FLORiE SINENSIS. 



western ideas penetrate amongst the people, a juster conception of 

 the influence of masses of trees on climate will cause a stop to be 

 put to the wholesale and unregulated felling of wood. 



When Mr. Bentham published his classical ' Flora Hongkong- 

 ensis,' sixteen years ago, evidence of the resemblances between 

 the South Chinese vegetation and that of Japan was not abundant, 

 though plainl}' exhibited in the case of a few striking representative 

 genera or species. But, since then, the close alliance of the 

 Japanese and Chinese Floras has been sufficiently demonstrated 

 by almost all the collections received from points intermediate 

 between the N.E. and S.E. of this Empire, which have likewise 

 shown the extension southwards of many types of the North Asiatic 

 Flora. And a very striking and singularly close afi&nity exists 

 between the Gliunacecc of Ceylon and Southern China, there being 

 many species common to both countries not as yet recorded from 

 elsewhere. It is much to be regretted that so few amateur bota- 

 nists give details as to the nature of the soil, special localities, or 

 elevations where their collections were made, nor how their plants 

 svere associated ; — matters even now of much moment, and likely 

 to become more so as phytostatic studies advance. 



" N('C vero terrse ferre onines omnia possunt. 

 Flumiuibus salices ; crassisque paludibus alni 

 Nascuntur, steriles saxosis raontibus orni, 

 Litora ravrtetis lactissima : denique apertos 

 Baci-hus amat coUes, aquilonem et fiigora taxi." 



(' Virg. Georg.' ii. 109). 



Mr. Sampson has always been very careful in this respect. 

 Professor Grisebach's ' Spicilegium Florae Eumelic^ ' may be 

 commended as a model of what can be done, in a perfectly com- 

 pendious way, as to these items of information. 



It only remains to add that, after the plan followed in Dr. 

 Cosson's well-known * Notes sur quelques plantes critiques ou 

 nouvelles de I'Espagne,' the diagnoses of new species in this 

 enumeration, together with their habitats, will be in Latin, and 

 all other critical or discussional observations in the vernacular. 



1. Aiiciiifmc (HomaJoraipm) fiaccida, Fr. Schmidt. Juxta 

 oppidum Chin keang, 187G, coll. W. G. Stronach. This seems in 

 rhizome and every oUier character quite accordant with Maxi- 

 mowicz and Albrechts' Japanese specimens, and well distinguished 

 from A. haicalrnsis, Turcz. ! of which I have compared an authentic 

 Manchurian example. 



2. Bannnniltisjihrvsiis, ^\ii\\. In graminosis prov. Cantonensis, 

 hinc inde satis vulgaris. Beferred in the ' Flora of British India,' 

 together with the North Chinese E. chivemis, Bge., to R. pmmyl- 

 raninifi, L. 



3. Akehia numata, Dene. Chinkiang, 1870. W. G. Stronach. 



4. Xfihiswo {Hisiiujrra) jajxniicuni, A. Gray. In fruticetis circa 

 Cantonem, d. 10 Oct., 180'j, legit Sampson. Not previously found 

 south of Amov. 



