294 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



and from these more than a thousand plants were 

 raised. 



After my successful introduction of the Davidia in 

 1901, and its free germination in 1902, I had yet one 

 little cup of bitterness to drain. Monsieur Maurice 

 de Vilmorin had received seeds of the Davidia from a 

 Roman Catholic Missionary, Pere Farges, in 1897, 

 and in 1898 one plant was raised in his arboretum at 

 Les Barres, France. From this plant two or three 

 cuttings and one layer were rooted. A rooted cutting 

 was sent to Kew Gardens, another to the Jardin 

 des Plantes in Paris, and the rooted layer to the Ar- 

 nold Arboretum, where it is now growing freely. My 

 employers were aware of this soon after I had been 

 despatched to China in 1899, but I was not, and I 

 took my draught when the whole story was published 

 by Monsieur Andre in the Revue Horticole, August 

 16, 1902, p. 377. Monsieur Vilmorin's plant flow- 

 ered for the first time in May, 1906, and proved to be 

 the smooth-leaved variety and received the name of 

 Davidia involucrata, var. Vilmoriniana, after an abor- 

 tive attempt on the part of a French botanist (Mon- 

 sieur L. A. Dode) to make it a distinct species. 



In the late summer of 1906 I had the mortifica- 

 tion of learning that several thousands of vigorous 

 Davidia plants raised from my 1901 seeds had been 



