122 PALIURUS PARROTIA 



Native of S. Europe eastwards to W. Asia ; cultivated in this country 

 for over three hundred years. In some of its native places it is used 

 as a hedge plant. I remember seeing it put to this use on the road 

 between Spalato and Salona, in Dalmatia. It is perfectly hardy at Kew, 

 and I have never seen it even touched by frost there. It grows very 

 well in ordinary loam, and although the flowers have no great beauty they 

 are pretty, and abundantly produced in rows of umbels on the upper side 

 of the shoot. The flat, disk-like, greenish yellow fruits, too, have an 

 interesting appearance, quite distinct from that of any other hardy shrub. 

 The branches are pliable and excessively spiny, and the tree has a 

 legendary interest as the one of whose branches the Crown of Thorns 

 was believed to have .been made. It flowers in July and August. Well 

 worth cultivation. 



PARROTIA. HAMAMELIDACE^E, 



Two deciduous, small trees, with alternate leaves and small flowers 

 crowded in terminal globose heads, subtended by several bracts. The 

 flowers have no petals, but numerous stamens, which furnish their chief 

 attraction ; although in P. Jacquemontiana this is supplemented by the 

 large white bracts. Both species are quite hardy, and thrive in good 

 loamy soil. Seeds afford the best means of increase, but failing these, 

 both may be propagated from layers. P. Jacquemontiana can be raised 

 from cuttings possibly the other also. Their nearest allied gener?. are 

 Sycopsis, which is evergreen, and Fothergilla, which has no bracts 

 beneath the head of flowers. The genus is named after the Russian, 

 Mr Parrot, who made the first ascent of Mt. Ararat in 1829. The 

 two species are very distinct, and P. Jacquemontiana has been made 

 into a separate genus. 



P. JACQUEMONTIANA, Decaisne. 



(Bot, Mag., t. 7501 ; Parrotiopsis involucrata, C. K. Schneider?) 



A deciduous tree, ultimately 1 5 to 20 ft. high, with a smooth grey trunk 

 and a much-branched bushy head ; sometimes a shrub ; young twigs covered 

 with clustered (stellate) hairs. Leaves roundish or very broadly ovate, 2 to 3^ 

 ins. long and nearly as wide ; margins set with broad open teeth ; both 

 surfaces furnished with stellate hairs, the upper one thinly so and finally 

 almost smooth, the lower one densely on the nerves ; stalk to \ in. long. 

 Flowers stalkless, produced from April to July, about twenty together in a 

 shortly stalked globose head about $ in. across, the chief feature of which are 

 the numerous yellow stamens. Beneath the head of flowers are four to six 

 conspicuous petal-like bracts of the same shape as the leaves, but only \ to i in. 

 long, and white ; they constitute the chief feature of the inflorescence. Seeds 

 shining, oblong, in. long. 



Native of the western Himalaya, especially in Cashmere ; where it was 

 discovered by Dr Falconer in 1836. It does not appear to have reached 

 cultivation until 1879, when seeds were sent to Kew. The largest specimen is 

 now about 1 2 ft. high, quite hardy and vigorous in an exposed position, and 

 flowers annually. It has no claim to a place among showy plants, but belongs 



