301 



note of the general properties of the Order, followed by detailed 

 numbered references to the more noteworthy objects. The 

 information contained in the Guide has been carefully revised in 

 accordance with the knowledge we now possess of the sources, 

 areas of production and improved processes of manufacture of the 

 extensive series of vegetable products exhibited. 



Davidia.— The genus Davidia, Baill., has been fully and 

 repeatedly described and figured; but as some time ago a question 

 arose as to whether the dried specimens in herbaria and the living 

 plants in Europe represent one or two species, it seems desirable 

 that something be said on this point, and in its elucidation the 

 history of the discovery of the genus, its introduction into 

 European gardens, and the conditions under which it grows in it 

 native country, may be briefly recapitulated. Davidia involwrata 

 was discovered near Moupine, Western China, by the Abbe David 

 in 1869, growing at an elevation of between 6,000 and 7,000 feet. 

 A specimen was transmitted to Paris and Baillon described it 

 (Adansonia, vol. x., p. 115) in 1871, and a coloured figure of it 

 appeared in the Nouvelles Archives du Museum dHist. Nat. 

 de Paris, serie, 2, 1885, vol. viii., p. 212 1. 10. Previously, in vol. v. 

 (1882) of the same publication, p. 161, David, in a general 

 description of the position, climate and vegetation of Moupine, 

 mentions : " L'arbre curieux que M. Baillon a bien voulu appeler 

 de mon nom, Davidia tibetana, croit aussi vers 2,000 metres 

 d'altitude." Now, there is no doubt, as we shall presently 

 « lemonstrate, that David was writing of the very same tree that 

 Baillon described, and not of a second species, as assumed by 

 Andre (Revue Horticole, 1902, p. 378) and others. 



In December, 1871, the same year that Baillon published his 

 description, Prof. J. Decaisne sent to Kew a leaf and a bract and a 

 sketch of the material described by the former, with the remark : 

 "Le Museum ne possede que le seul exemplaire dont yoici le 

 caique .... On m'avait assure que le Davidia se trouvait 

 dans les pepinieres d'A. Leroy a Angers." We have found no 

 confirmation of the latter statement ; but E. Andre, in the place 

 cited above, gives the history of the successful introduction or a 

 Davidia by Messrs. de Vilmorin, through Pere targes, a 

 missionary. There were two consignments ; one from bzecnuen, 

 in 1897, and the other from « Eastern Tibet," in 1898. Moupine 

 it should be explained, was regarded by the missionaries as being 

 in Tibet, but we follow Bretschneider's map, where it is placed m 

 Western Szechuen, though the boundaries of China Proper ana 

 the adjoining tributary States are not well defi ned. It is 

 important, however, to note this geographical fact, because there 

 are two varieties, or closely allied species of tendta:toe<n* 

 from Moupine, otherwise "Eastern Tibet," and the other from 

 more eastern localities. Out of the two lots of se ed re ce^d ^ 

 Messrs. de Vilmorin, only one seed germinated and ^ that alter 

 lying in the ground two years ! It was one of the e receded m 

 1897, and the seedling flourished so well ^ in 1901 fon r n ngs 

 were taken off and one branch was layered. Two ot tUe cnnin 

 grew and eventually one of the resulting plants was presented to 



