290 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



made I let the subject drift from my mind. On 

 May 19th when collecting near the hamlet of Ta-wan, 

 distant some five days southwest of Ichang, I sud- 

 denly happened upon a Davidia tree in full flower! 

 It was about fifty feet tall, in outline pyra- 

 midal, and with its wealth of blossoms was more 

 beautiful than words can portray. When figuring 

 Henry's fruiting specimens in Hooker's "Icones Plan- 

 tarum" (XX. t. 1961, [1891]) the Keeper of the Kew 

 Herbarium wrote: "Davidia is a tree almost deserving 

 a special mission to western China with a view to its 

 introduction to European gardens." On beholding 

 this extraordinary tree for the first time I no longer 

 marvelled at the Keeper's strong language. And 

 now with a wider knowledge of floral treasures of the 

 Northern Hemisphere I am convinced that Davidia 

 involucrata is the most interesting and most beautiful 

 of all trees which grow in the north temperate re- 

 gions. The distinctive beauty of the Davidia is in 

 the two snow-white connate bracts which subtend 

 the flower proper. These are always unequal in 

 size the larger usually six inches long by three inches 

 broad, and the smaller three and one half inches by 

 two and one half inches; they range up to eight inches 

 by four inches and five inches by three inches. At 

 first greenish, they become pure white as the flowers 



