122 WILSON EXPEDITION TO CHINA 



obtuse. The peduncles in No. 3721 are 6-8 mm. long, in No. 2022 the pedicels are 

 more or less separate so that the flowers are pedicelled and the common peduncle 

 is sometimes very short, similar to the inflorescence of A. biflora Turczaninow. 

 The leaves are also very variable; in No. 2021 they are narrowly lanceolate and 

 quite entire, and in No. 4210 lanceolate-oblong and nearly entire, while in No. 

 2022 and in Purdom's No. 320 at least part of the leaves are elliptic and coarsely 

 toothed and in No. 4492 the leaves are oblong-lanceolate and almost all serrate. 

 The flowers are fragrant, the tube nearly tubular and the limb spreading. 



Abelia umbellata, n. comb. 

 Linnaea umbellata Graebner & Buchwald in Bot. Jahrb. XXIX. 143 (1900). 



Western Hupeh: Hsing-shan Hsien, woodlands, alt. 1200-1800 

 m., June, Nov. 1907 (No. 607); without locality, June 1900 (Veitch 

 Exped. No. 922). Szech'uan: A. Henry (No. 7083, type). 



The corolla, not described by Graebner, is narrowly funnel-form or nearly tubu- 

 lar, white, 15-18 mm. long, with spreading limb, 3 mm. long; the style slightly 

 exceeds the tube and the stamens just reach the mouth; the sepals are nearly as 

 long as the tube or somewhat shorter. 



The determination of Wilson's collection and other unnamed material in the 

 herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum led me to study all the Asiatic species, and in 

 consequence to a rearrangement of the species, differing in several points from the 

 grouping as proposed by Maximowicz (in Mel. Biol. XII. 473-480), Zabel (in Mitt. 

 Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. II. 32-34) and Graebner (in Bot. Jahrb. XXIX. 120-145). 

 To show clearly the arrangement I have adopted, a synopsis of the whole genus 

 is appended here. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE GENUS ABELIA. 



Abelia has been by several writers united with Linnaea and treated as a sub- 

 genus of the latter, but there does not seem to be a very convincing reason for the 

 union of these two genera; there are no intermediate forms, and sufficient char- 

 acters in the ovary and the fruit, as well as in the calyx and in the corolla and in 

 the habit of the plants to keep Abelia as a distinct genus. At present 27 species 

 of Abelia may be distinguished which can be divided into two sections well marked 

 by differences in the vegetative and reproductive parts and easily recognized 

 even without flowers or fruits. The first section Euabelia, with A. chinensis as 

 the type, is characterized by the petioles not being dilated at the base and not 

 enclosing the winter-buds, by the absence of recurved hispid hairs on the young 

 branchlets, the lighter or darker brown color of the bark separating hi flakes, the 

 more or less funnel form or nearly campanulate shape of the corolla and the 

 terete or nearly terete akenes. The second section, Zabelia, which I take 

 pleasure in associating with the name of H. Zabel, who first proposed a good 

 division of the genus into sections, is characterized by the petioles being 

 dilated at the base with the opposite ones connate and covering the winter-buds 

 and persistent on the branchlets of the previous year, by the young branch- 

 lets being furnished with reflexed hispid hairs or rarely glabrous, by the tubular 

 corolla with spreading limb, by the stamens not exceeding the tube and the 

 scarcely exserted style, and by flattened akenes usually more or less curved. The 

 several subsections or series as here limited have well defined geographical ranges; 

 the first, Serratae, is Japanese, the second and third, Uniflorae and Rupestres, range 



