206 WILSON EXPEDITION TO CHINA 



Western Hupeh: north and south of Ichang, open country, alt. 

 1000-1300 m., May and September 1907 (No. 258, in part, type); 

 Hsing-shan Hsien, mountain-sides, alt. 1300 m., rare. May 21 and 

 September 1907 (No. 258, in part); Patung Hsien, woodlands, alt. 

 1300 m., June and September 1907 (No. 154); Hsing-shan Hsien, 

 open country, June 15, 1910 (No. 258''). Eastern Szech'uan: 

 Wushan, without locality, April 1901 (Veitch Exped. No. 627). 

 Western Szech'uan: Shih-ch'uan Hsien, near Pien-kou, open 

 country, August 14, 1910 (No. 4606); village near Lungan Fu, in 

 temple grounds, alt. 1400 m., August 19, 1910 (No. 4607). 



A remarkable and well-marked species distinguishable at once from all other 

 members of the genus by its precocious flowers borne in axillary panicles, while in 

 all other pinnate-leaved species the inflorescence is terminal. This new species 

 may be compared with M. Oldhamii Miquel which has a similar branching habit 

 but which differs in its large, terminal, erect, much-branched panicles produced 

 after the leaves are nearly fully grown. M. Beaniana is one of the handsomest 

 and most striking of Chinese trees. It is nowhere common but occurs scattered 

 throughout western Hupeh and Szech'uan at altitudes of between 1000 m. and 

 1500 m., and very commonly it is associated with temples and wayside shrines. 

 The creamy white flowers are relatively large for the genus. The spreading and 

 pendulous panicles are smaller than in other pinnate-leaved species, but they are 

 so numerous and so clustered together that the tree in May, when it is covered 

 with a mass of creamy-white flowers, is a strikingly conspicuous object in the 

 landscape. In Hupeh this tree is colloquially known as the " Ku-ku-lan-shu." It 

 is now in cultivation. 



Pictures of this tree will be found under Nos. 079, 0258 and 0268 of the collec- 

 tion of Wilson's photographs. 



Meliosma Beaniana is named for my friend Wilham J. Bean, Assistant- Curator 

 of the Royal Gardens, Kew, in appreciation of the interest he has always taken in 

 Chinese plants and of his untiring efforts to secure them for cultivation. 



E. H. W. 



Meliosma Oldhamii Miquel in Ann. Mus. Lugd.-Bat. III. 94 (1867); 

 Prol. Fl. Jap. 258 (1867). — Maximowicz in Bull. Acad. Sci. St. 

 Petershourg, ser. 3, XII. 63 (1868); in Mel. Biol. VI. 263 (1868).— 

 Hemsley in Jour. Linn. Soc. XXIII. 145 (1886). — Diels in Bot. Jahrb. 

 XXIX. 452 (1900). — Pampanini in Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital. n. ser. 

 XVIII. 173 (1911). 



Meliosma Wallichii Hemsley in Jour. lAnn. Soc. XXIII. 146 (non Planchon) 

 (1886). 



Kiangsi: Ruling, thickets, alt. 1300 m., common, July 30, 1907 

 (No. 1650; small tree 2-3 m. tall). Western Hupeh: Patung 

 Hsien, woods, alt. 1200 m., June 1907 (No. 3038, in part; tree 10-12 

 m. tall, 2 m. girth, flowers white); Changlo Hsien, woods, alt. 1000- 



