94 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxx 



Sarcocarpion, of which Syringa sempervirens, Franch., is 

 the sole representative. Several characters of the new 

 species accord ill with Syringa — the evergreen coriaceous 

 foliage, the more or less fleshy mesocarp of the fruit, and 

 the single wingless seed. The habit of the plant, moreover, 

 does not suggest Syringa ; so little is it reminiscent of that 

 genus that anyone unacquainted with the plant would com- 

 pare it with Ligustruin and its allies in his first attempt 

 at identification. These difficulties have already been 

 noted by Schneider in his Illustriertes Handbuch der Laub- 

 holzkunde, vol. ii, p. 771, from which I quote his apt note : — 

 " Die >S'. sempervirens, Franchet, in Bull. Soc. Linn. Paris, 

 i, 613, 1886, aus Yunnan, mit immergriinen B. und stein- 

 fruchtartiger Fr. mit etwas fleischigem Mesocarp und 

 ungeflligelten Samen kenne ich nur aus einem BL- 

 Exemplar, das viel mehr einem Ligustrum als einer 

 Syringa gleicht. Franchet begrilndete auf diese Art seine 

 Sekt. Sarcocarpion. Meiner Meinung nach handelt es 

 sich hier wolil um eine neue Gattung, doch konnte ich die 

 Fr. noch nicht untersuchen." 



The resemblance to the genus Ligustriiin is well illus- 

 trated by the marked similarity in habit and leaves to 

 Ligustrum coriaceum, Carr., an excellent figure of which 

 is given in Bot. Mag., tab. 7519. The native country of 

 this latter plant is not definitely known — it is possibly 

 Japan ; by many good authorities the plant is considered 

 merely a growth form of L. ^aponicum, Thunb., which has 

 arisen in Japanese gardens. However that may be, the 

 resemblance is so close that Mr. George Forrest (collector of 

 the sheets quoted below) was at first sight inclined to 

 believe that plants of the latter growing in the Royal 

 Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, were the same as the Yunnan 

 plant known to him. The fruits, however, of the two plants 

 are quite distinct, that of L. coriaceum being a globose 

 berry, the size of a small pea, that of tlie Yunnan plant 

 oblong and dehiscing from the apex. 



The plant is then somewhat awkwardly placed in Syringa, 

 although nearly allied; its dehiscent fruit separates it readily 

 from LiguMrunv and other members of the Oleineae. I 

 suggest as the generic name Parasyringa. Franchet's 

 sectional name would be appropi'iate, but that name, with 



