ON THE HTJSKLESS WALNUTS OF NORTH CEINA. 15 



where probably Brown's raeagre diagnosis, modelled after the Linnean 



tradition, is amplified.* 



I cannot pretend to a good acquaintance with the curious little 

 group to which this genus belongs ; but I should say its glumaceous 

 flowers and follicular fruits, in connexion with their singular arrange- 

 ment when there are several in a flower, might fairly j ustify its sepa- 

 ration from RestiacecB proper. However, this is a point on which I 

 speak with much hesitation, believing that a large proportion of the 

 Monocotyledonous families now admitted by the majority of botanists 

 will eventually, on a strict general revision, have to accept a merely 

 subordinal or sectional rank, and the same with many of the 

 genera. 



ON THE HUSKLESS WALNUTS OF NORTH CHINA.. 

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



In a paper full of interest, with the title " Quelques renseigne- 

 ments sur I'histoire naturelle de la Chine septentrionale et occidentale," 

 published in the 7th number of the "Journal of the North China 

 Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society" (Shanghae, 1873), the Abbe 

 Armand David has given a brief sketch of the fauna and flora of 

 those portions of Northern and Western China which he had visited. 

 In this memoir he observes : — " Quehjues endroits de la province dc 

 Pekin fournissent des noix qui sont naturellement depourvus de 

 coque." After several fruitless inquiries, Dr. Bretschneider at length 

 procured specimens of these huskless Walnuts, of which he was so 

 kind as to communicate some for my examination. They are of two 

 sizes, the smaller measuring one inch, the larger one inch and a half 

 in length. The nuts are rather thinner and more brittle than in the 

 common Walnut, and their surface is curiously and irregularly eroded, 

 presenting very much the appearance of sea -worn rock ; the outer 

 polished coat, in fact, is partly wanting and partly separable from the 

 inner thin part, which it covers only in patches, and pieces of it can 

 easily be detached by the nail. They show a tendency to split longi- 

 tudinally at the side of the thickened keel formed by the junction of 

 the valves ; and the small-sized nuts (which are much thinner, 

 indeed sometimes little more than coriaceo-cartilaginous in texture) 

 along the middle of the valves also. Vertical and transverse sections 



* Hieronymaa (I.e., p. 215) gives the following description of C. exserta, 

 R. & S., apparently made from an authentic specimen: — "Radix fasciculato- 

 fibrillosa, fibrillis subramosis. Calamus ramosus, rami contracti fasciculati 

 foliati. Folia setacea filiformia. Pedunculi teretes pubescentes (pilis articu- 

 latis) 5-7 cm. alti, foliis duplo vel triplo longiores. Spicula bibracteata, bracte- 

 arum internodio 1-1^ mm. longo. Bractcaa florales subcymbajformes, longiores 

 quam latiB, plurinervige, brevissime mucronatse vel submuticEe, interdum 

 violacese, margine membranaceaB, hyalinas, ciliata3 (pilis simplicibus) ; dorso 

 papillosse, strigoso-pilosse (pilis articulatis basi tumidis). Flores circiter 8-10 in 

 axilla utriusque bractea3 cicinnum formantes, bibracteolati (rarissime tribracteo- 

 lati suprema bracteola glan dulse for mi rudimentari) bracteolse hyalinsB, lanceo- 

 late, subintegras, apice denticulatae. Ovaria 7-14. Styli liberi carpophorum 

 longitudine subaequantes vel superantes." — {Ed. J. Bot.] 



