66 NEW PLANTS, ETC., 



which has reached this country in safety, is apparently hardy, 

 has already been distributed by the Society to a limited exte-.it, 

 and promises to take rank with the Chinese Azalea as an object 

 of ornament. A drawing received from him represents it as 

 forming loose clusters of from three to five flowers at the end of 

 every little side branch, and his dried specimens show that the 

 drawing is faithful in that respect. The flowers are rather more 

 than an inch long, and are an inch and a half in diameter when 

 expanded. In colour they are very like the well-known Chinese 

 Crab (Pyrus spectabilis), pure white under, deep rose externally. 



The genus Weigela, which originated with the Swedish tra- 

 veller Thunberg, has been referred by modern botanists to 

 Diervilla, and several species of it inhabiting Japan have been 

 published by Messrs. Siebold and Zuccarini under that name. 

 But although in many technical characters it approaches that 

 genus, yet it is very different in habit ; and since the seed-vessel 

 is crustaceous, not membranous, and the seeds winged, not 

 wingless, it seems expedient to preserve the original genus. 



The species now described is more like the Calysphyrum 

 Jloridiim, also a AVeigela, and a most beautiful one, from the 

 North of China, than any of the Diervillas of Siebold and Zucca- 

 rini, from all « hich it differs in its very large flowers, except their 

 D. grandiflora, the leaves of which have very long stalks and the 

 stamens hairy filaments. 



Hitherto this plant has been kept in a greenhouse, but it 

 has so much the appearance of a hardy shrub that, especially 

 considering its flowering in the North of China in the month 

 of April, it will probably live in the open air. 



7. Pterostigma grandiflorum, Bentham, Scroph. Ind. 

 p. 21. Hooker and Arnott, Botany of Capt. Beecheys 

 Voyage, p. 204, t. 45. 



Received from Mr. Fortune, July 30, 1843, from Hong 

 Kong, as an herbaceous plant, with blue flowers, grow- 

 ing on hill sides and near streams. 



In its wild state this plant does not appear to grow more than 

 a foot or 18 inches high; but in gardens it has become more 

 than 3 feet high, the consequence of which is that its natural 

 beauty has been greatly impaired. It is a perennial, covered 

 all over with slender spreading hairs. The stems are round ; the 

 leaves are opposite, stalked, ovate, crenated, very much marked 

 with sunken veins, and deep green. The flowers, which are 

 nearly as large as those of a Digitalis, and of the deep colour of 

 Gloxinia violacca, grow singly in the axils of the leaves, than 



