76 MAGNOLIA MALLOTUS 



Whether this species be a true native of Japan is uncertain. It has 

 long been cultivated there, but may really be from Corea. It first appeared 

 in Europe at the Paris Exposition of 1889, when it was exhibited in the 

 Japanese Court. Like many imported Japanese plants, those originally 

 introduced were badly grafted, and many of them died ; the species thereby 

 got the reputation of being difficult to manage. It thrives admirably when 

 once established, and flowers freely in June and July on leafy shoots. It 

 is quite hardy at Kew, and in Devonshire is already 20 ft. high. Often 

 confused with M. parviflora, this species is readily .distinguished by its 

 shorter-stalked, larger flowers, and by the larger, more leathery leaves, with 

 ten to fifteen pairs of nerves. 



MAONOLIA WATSONI. 



MALLOTUS JAPONICUS, Mueller. EUPHORBIACE/E. 



(Rottlera japonica, SprengeL') 



A deciduous shrub, 10 or 12 ft. high, with very pithy young wood, 

 covered at first with minute specks of white starry down. -Leaves like 

 those of a Catalpa, ovate, rounded or broadly tapered at the base, 

 gradually tapered at the apex to a long slender point; they vary much 

 in size, the largest being 9 or 10 ins. long by 6 ins. wide; the smallest less 

 than one-third those dimensions ; at first they are clothed with down like 

 that on the shoots, but this soon falls away, leaving them nearly or quite 

 smooth ; the lower surface is specked with minute, transparent glands,. 

 Flowers small, crowded on erect, terminal, pyramidal panicles, 3 to 6 ins. 

 high ; they have little beauty, being small and covered with white down. 

 Males and females occur on separate plants. 



Native of Japan and Central China. The best plant I have seen was 

 in Mrs Chambers' garden at Haslemere, where it flowers in autumn. It 

 is only worth growing for its handsome foliage. 



