428 WILSON EXPEDITION TO CHINA 



carpium corneum, ab exocarpio solutum; semina oblongo-ovoidea, 

 testa ossea, atrobrunnea, nitida, basi hilo albido transverso exsculpto 

 notata; albumen tenue; embryo rectus, cotyledonibus foliaceis amplis 

 margine sigmoideo-recurvis basi subcordatis, radicula brevi ad hilum 

 spectante. — Frutex stellato-pubescens foliis deciduis serratis petio- 

 latis, stipulis parvis deciduis, floribus coetaneis in racemos terminales 

 dispositis breviter pedicellatis parvis bracteis bracteolisque parvis 

 caducis institutis, capsula pedicello incrassato insidente, ovoidea, 

 apice basibus stylorum persistentibus coronata, lenticellata. 



Genus novum Sinowilsoniae et Corylopsi affine: a priori cui habitu 

 et foliis simillimum praecipue calycis tubo turbinato quam ovarium 

 breviori, petalis subulatis, cotyledonibus amplioribus margine recurvis 

 bene distincta; a posteriori cui florum structura arctius affine, defectu 

 disci, petalis minutis, antheris sessilibus, capsula apice attenuata nee 

 truncata, lenticellata, cotyledonibus amplis margine recurvis, foliorum 

 indumento, forma, nervatione valde differt. 



Species unica Chinae centralis incola. 



This new Chinese genus is named for the late Robert Fortune whose travels 

 in China and Japan, from 1843-1861 resulted in important additions to our knowl- 

 edge of the far eastern, and particularly the Chinese flora and enriched our garden 

 with a large number of highly ornamental plants. Lindley in 1846 (in Jour. Hort. 

 Soc. I. 150) named a Chinese plant Fortunaea chinensis, but the same plant had 

 been previously described by Siebold & Zuccarini as Platycarya strobilacea. 



Fortunearia closely resembles in foliage and habit Sinowilsonia, which differs 

 chiefly in its tubular calyx-tube several times longer than the ovary and en- 

 closing it, by the absence of petals, the larger spatulate sepals, sessile flowers 

 and the flat cotyledons. In the structure of its flowers it seems most closely re- 

 lated to Corylopsis, which ,however, is easily distinguished by the presence of a 

 disk, large petals, stamens with long filaments, truncate, not lenticellate capsules, 

 flat cotyledons and by the nervation, shape and pubescence of the leaves. 



In some specimens collected in autumn we find terminal on short branchlets 

 a few peculiar naked oblong aments, only 5-6 mm. long and resembling short 

 staminate catkins of Corylus. The flowers of these aments contain in this stage 

 well-developed anthers and in the centre a rudimentary ovary consisting of a two- 

 pointed body only about one-third as long as the stamens; whether this rudimen- 

 tary ovary will develop into a normal pistil the following spring or will remain 

 rudimentary, cannot now be determined. In the latter case Fortunearia would 

 turn out to be an andromonoecious genus like Sinowilsonia, but neither in this 

 genus nor in Distylium have similar naked autumnal aments been described and 

 we have searched in vain numerous specimens of these two genera for such aments. 

 For the solution of the question regarding the character of these aments we shall 

 probably have to wait until the plants now growing in the Arnold Arboretum and 

 in other gardens flower. 



Fortunearia sinensis Rehder & Wilson, n. sp. 



Frutex 1.50-2 m. altus, ramis erectis; ramuli hornotini, initio sparse 



