422 WILSON EXPEDITION TO CHINA 



In western Szech'uan it is rather rare, but occurs around Mt. Omei and in the pre- 

 fecture of Yachou Fu. It is a handsome tree 20-40 m. tall, with straight trunk, a 

 much-branched head, and frequently buttressed roots. The leaves turn to a warm 

 chestnut-brown or red in autumn and are retained late into the winter. It ia 

 known colloquially in Hupeh as the Feng Hsiang tree. 



In juvenile plants, either seedlings or shoots rising from the stumps of felled 

 trees, the stems and petioles are villose, often densely so; the leaves are pal- 

 mately 5-lobed with a broadly cordate base and villose below; the lobes are some- 

 what narrowed to the base, acute, rarely shortly acuminate. Adventitious branchea 

 which develop on old trees after severe pruning also have these same hairy stems and 

 leaves. In adult trees the branchlets and petioles are glabrous; the leaves smaller, 

 3-lobed, with a cordate or more rarely truncate base and are glabrescent below; the 

 lobes are divaricate, widening to the base and long acuminate. 



Hance (Jour. Bot. V. 110, 1867) has drawn attention to this remarkable differ- 

 ence between the leaves and shoots in juvenile and adult trees of this species and 

 we can abundantly confirm his observations. In Kiangsi province and other places 

 the timber is used for tea-chests, but we never heard that it was used for this 

 purpose in western Hupeh. 



Pictures of this tree will be found under Nos. 38, 497, 480, 481, 532, 045, 0182 

 of Wilson's photographs and also in his Vegetation of Western China, Nos. 295- 

 299. 



Liquidambar formosana, var. monticola Rehder & Wilson, n. var. 



A typo recedit ramulis foliisque semper glabris foliis subtus glau- 

 cescentibus basi truncatis rarius subcordatis, in plantis juvenilibus 

 tantum plerumque cordatis. Arbor 16-25 m. altus trunco circuitu 

 2-3 m. 



Western Hupeh: Hsing-shan Hsien, woodlands, alt, 600- 

 1200 m., rare, May and November 1907 (No. 795, type). Eastern 

 Szech'uan: Taning Hsien, woodlands, alt. 1600 m., July 1910 (No. 

 795"). 



This distinct variety is common in moist woods in north-eastern Szech'uan, 

 more especially in Taning Hsien, but is rare in western Hupeh. We at first took 

 it for a distinct species, but on closer examination we can find no essential differences 

 in the flower or fruit. The glabrous character is fixed and constant as seedlings 

 raised in the Arnold Arboretum as well as field observations prove. Seedling plants 

 of the type and this variety growing side by side look remarkably different, but in 

 the adult trees the distinctions are much less apparent and in the herbarium it is 

 diflScult to distinguish between them. The variety scarcely grows to as large a 

 size as the type, and it is a much hardier tree. 



A picture of this tree will be found under No. 0181 of Wilson's photographs.^ 



* There may be added the description of a new species from Yunnan of the 

 closely allied genus Altingia Noronha. 



Altingia yunnanensis Rehder & Wilson, n. sp. 



Arbor 3-6-metrali3, sed altitudinem ingentem trunco 4 m. diam. attingere 

 dicitur; ramuli hornotini glaberrimi, annotini pallide brunnei. Folia in apice 

 ramulorum fructiferorum congesta, subcoriacea, elliptico-ovata v. elliptico- 



