314 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxix. 



glabrescens. Both have plenty of long articulate hairs. 

 At the same time they conform with the picture created 

 by Franchet's description of var. rotundifolia. 



So far as specimens are concerned Franchet's var. 

 glabrescens is not forthcoming. But his description is 

 clear enough. It does not refer to any of the forms that 

 I have seen from the Paris Herbarium. I wish it were 

 otherwise, because I am almost convinced that Franchet's 

 variety is the plant hereafter named P. sinolisteri, 

 Balf. fil. 



Since Franchet wrote we have come to know many 

 additional forms of this series, some of which may fairly 

 claim to be deserving of distinctive names. 



The aggregate obconico- Lister i impresses me as a type 

 showing at one extreme a xeromorphous rupestral calci- 

 colous form in P. obconica, Hance ; at the other a hygro- 

 philous sylvestral one in P. Listeri, King ; and this 

 interpretation seems to be borne out by the few statements 

 of exact habitat which one finds attached to herbarium 

 specimens by collectors as well as by records in published 

 descriptions : — limestone cliffs — rocky pastures — and the 

 like in the former case; bamboo jungles— damp shady 

 places in the latter. But there are evident gradations of 

 form in relation to variation in intensity of individual 

 factors in the habitat. 



Before proceeding to enumerate such forms within the 

 aggregate as will serve to show the directions of variation 

 and the links binding the extremes, I give in summarised 

 form the leading characters of the composite picture in the 

 ao-o-regate so far as these may be derived from an exami- 

 nation of herbarium material supplementing knowledge 

 derived from two forms in cultivation. 



Stem-system. — A plant with a stem-system varying 

 from woody rhizome shooting profusely or sparsely 

 from its surface to a short subterranean crown 

 with a profuse evolution of roots. 

 Foliage. — The leaves always petiolate and always 

 cordate at the base, the lamina orbicular or 

 rotundate or broadly elliptic, varying in size from 

 1 J to 15 cm. long, and from 2 to 8 cm. broad, the 



