204 PLATYCARYA PL AT Y CRATER 



PLATYCARYA STROBILACEA, Siebold. JUGLANDACE.E. 



(Fortunaea chinensis, Lindley ; Journ. Hort. Soc., i., p. 150.) 



A small or medium-sized, deciduous tree, with pinnate leaves, 6 to 

 12 ins. long. Leaflets five to fifteen, stalkless, ovate-lanceolate, obliquely 

 wedge-shaped or rounded at the base, long and taper-pointed, sharply and 

 often doubly toothed; ij to 4 4 ins. long, J to ij in. wide; with at first 

 scattered hairs above and along the midrib and veins beneath, becoming 

 smooth later. Flowers unisexual, both sexes borne on the same tree, 

 but on separate inflorescences. Male catkins slender, cylindrical, 

 drooping, 2 to 3^ ins. long, \ in. wide; borne four to twelve together 

 in a hairy raceme terminating the current year's growth; female 

 inflorescence also terminal, surrounded by the male catkins, erect, 

 usually solitary, i\ ins. long, i in. wide, resembling a cone. In both 

 sexes, the flowers are produced in the axils of small, lanceolate scales, 

 followed in the female by tiny winged nutlets which, with the wings, 

 are only j- to \ in. across. 



Native of China; first discovered and introduced by Fortune in 1845 '> 

 said also to be found in Japan. Allied to the walnuts and hickories, and 

 resembling them in leaf and male catkins, it is very distinct in the female 

 inflorescence and tiny nuts. It succeeds well in Central and S. France, 

 but I am afraid is only adapted for the milder parts of Britain. It lives 

 out-of-doors at Kew, but does not thrive. 



PLATYCRATER ARGUTA, Siebold. SAXIFRAGACE^:. 



A low, deciduous, sometimes creeping shrub, with slender, smooth 

 stems. Leaves narrowly oval-lanceolate, the largest 5 to 8 ins. long 

 and i to 2 ins. wide, tapering at both ends, the margins set with slender 

 teeth, bristly hairy beneath; stalk \ in. long. Flowers of two kinds, viz. 

 perfect and sterile, as in Hydrangea, produced in a lax terminal corymb. 

 Perfect flowers i in. across, with four white, broadly ovate petals, two 

 styles, very numerous yellow stamens, and a four-lobed calyx ; the lobes 

 ^ in. long, pointed, narrowly triangular. Fruit top-shaped, with the 

 calyx-lobes persisting. Sterile flowers consisting only of the united calyx- 

 lobes, and forming a white, flat, three- or four-sided disk, | in. across, all 

 the other parts of the flower being absent. 



Native of Japan ; introduced by way of St Petersburg about 1868. 

 The plant is rather tender and apt to be cut to the ground in winter, or 

 killed outright in severe frosts. I have never seen the sterile flowers 

 above described on cultivated plants, usually there have been three 

 perfect flowers produced in a corymb, the middle one opening first, each 

 on a slender stalk i in. or less long. Both Siebold and Regel include 

 sterile flowers in their figures (see Flora faponica, t. 2 7, and Gartenflora, 

 t. 516). Siebold says he found the plant growing on humid rocks with 

 its branches flat on the ground. He mentions a curious use the Japanese 



