DISCARIA DORYCNIUM 501 



greenish white, in. across, produced very numerously in clusters along with 

 the leaves ; calyx with four or five lobes, petals absent. Fruit a round, three- 

 valved capsule, in. wide. 



Native of New Zealand. This remarkable shrub is unfortunately too 

 tender to thrive in the open at Kew, but succeeds very well against a south 

 wall, where it flowers in great profusion every May. It is worth growing for 

 its extraordinary spines, which are green and terete, and as thick as the shoot 

 from which they spring. The leaves are sometimes absent on old plants. 



DISTYLIUM RACEMOSUM, Siebold. HAMAMELIDACE^E. 



(Gardeners' Chronicle, 1906, ii., fig. 120.) 



An evergreen shrub with rigid, short branches (a small tree in nature) ; 

 young shoots minutely warted. Leaves alternate, leathery, entire, narrow- 

 oblong or obovate, tapering at the base to a short stalk, often blunt at 

 the apex; ij to 3 ins. long, \ to \\ ins. wide; shining deep green, 

 smooth on both sides except when very young. Flowers sometimes 

 unisexual, in small erect racemes, about i in. long. There are no petals, 

 but a five-parted, reddish, downy calyx, and several lurid purple stamens ; 

 flower-stalks covered with rusty-coloured scurf. Fruit semi-woody, downy, 

 surmounted by the two styles which remain attached at the top, and to 

 which the generic name refers. 



Native of Japan, where, according to Sargent, it is an evergreen tree, 

 with an exceedingly hard, dark-coloured, valuable wood. It has never 

 promised to be more than a dwarf, somewhat stiff shrub in this country. 

 It is not very hardy at Kew, but grows well and flowers out-of-doors at 

 Edinburgh, at Haslemere in Surrey, and will do so, of course, in other 

 mild localities. It belongs to the curious rather than to the beautiful class 

 of shrubs. Propagated by cuttings. Its nearest ally is Sycopsis. 



Var. VARIEGATUM. Leaves narrow, often deformed; blotched and 

 margined irregularly with creamy white ; often grown in cool greenhouses, 

 and better known in gardens than the green type. 



DORYCNIUM. LEGUMINOS^E. 



Of the half-dozen or so species that make up this genus, none is 

 genuinely shrubby, for much of the growth they make during summer 

 dies the following winter after bearing flowers and seeds. But the two 

 here described (especially D. suffruticosum) form woody permanent 

 bases. They belong to the pea-flowered section of Leguminosae, and are 

 distinguished by the capitate inflorescence, the thick, short seed-pods, 

 and the quinquefoliolate leaves. Very easily cultivated in an open position 

 in a light, loamy soil. 



D. HIRSUTUM, Seringe. 



(Cytisus Lotus, Hort.') 



A semi-herbaceous plant, with erect, branching, annual stems, round, 

 slightly ribbed and hairy, springing from a woody base. Leaves of five 



