331 
X. A Himalayan Cherry. 
Prunus rufa, Wailich [Rosaceae]. 
This interesting cherry was raised from seed sent to Kew from 
the Calcutta Botanic Garden in 1897 and has so far proved perfectly 
hardy. During the last few years it has flowered freely. It is a 
deciduous tree said to be 15 to 20 feet high, the young branchlets 
covered with a dense, rusty-coloured pubescence. Leaves 2 to 4 
inches long, narrowly elliptical or oblong-lanceolate with an 
opportunity of ascertaining. 
This cherry is a native of Nepal and Sikkim at elevations of 
12,000 feet and although not one of the most showy is pretty and 
distinct on account of the rufous down, and the conspicuously 
glandular teeth of the leaves. 
XI. A Monotypic American Tree. 
Leitneria floridana, Chapman [Leitneriaceae]. 
While this shrub or small tree is not likely to add much to the 
ornamentation of gardens it is undoubtedly one of the most 
interesting plants of North America. In itself it constitutes the 
Natural Order Lettneriaceae, which Bentham and Hooker place 
between Platanaceae and Juglandaceae. An undated specimen in 
the Kew Herbarium was collected, according to a note in Sir m, 
Hooker’s handwriting, by Drummond on the “ Rio Brazos, Texas. 
was found again in 1847 by Dr. Chapman near the town of 
Apalachicola in Florida, Finally in 1892, it was found in a new 
station by Mr. B. F. Bush in S.E. Missouri. Wherever it has 
been seen wild it inhabits swampy spots, often with its roots . 
submerged. . 
The Leitneria is a shrub or small tree usually 5 to 10 sometimes 
20 feet high, with a main stem 3 to 5 inches thick at the base, we 
young branchlets hairy. The leaves are narrowly gale: BaD 
about equally at both ends, 3 to 7 inches long, 14 to 3 ee es is “ 
thinly hairy above, clothed with brown felt beneath. The plan 
are unisexual, the male flowers borne on the naked wood, in Pat 
axillary, erect catkins 14 inches long and consisting of stamens only 
enclosed in a hirsute scale. The female flowers are in shorter, ~ 
more slender catkins. Fruit a dry drupe, compressed, Mer 
3 inch long, } inch wide. The wood is, perhaps, the he! ee 
known, having little more than one-fifth the specific gravity o 
