256 WILSON EXPEDITION TO CHINA 



dark gray, rough, with corky lenticels and exfoliates in thin, small flat irregu- 

 larly oblong flakes. The wood is white, tough and heavy. The flowers are pen- 

 dulous, produced on short, lateral, spur-like branches; the bracts are always flimsy 

 in texture, boat-shaped, coarsely toothed or entire, small and rather greenish 

 at first, attaining full size and snowy whiteness when the anthers are mature; 

 afterwards they turn first creamy-white, then brownish, and fall away. When in 

 full flower the tree is more conspicuous on dull days and in the early morning 

 and evening than when the sun is shining. Andre (in Rev. Hort. 1902, 378) states, 

 on the authority of Pere Farges, that the fruit is edible when bletted. This is an 

 error. The mesocarp is very thin and " gritty; " the endocarp is very sclerotic 

 and remains so even after exposure to the weather or after having been buried for 

 two or three years. A sharp axe or saw is necessary to cut through the endocarp, 

 and the seeds are too small to be of any edible value. 



The tree was discovered in Mupin, western Szech'uan, by Abbe David in 1869, 

 and was first introduced to cultivation through seeds which I collected and sent 

 to Messrs. Veitch in November 1903 and again in 1904. Several hundreds of seed- 

 lings were raised in the nursery of Coombe Wood and every one had glabrous 

 leaves and continued to produce such for the first three or four years. The shoots 

 were dark red and this character alone distinguished them from seedUngs of the 

 variety Vilmoriniana. The 5-year old plants had leaves very sparsely pubescent 

 below; a specimen before me, taken from one of these plants in June 1911, has 

 the underside of the leaves clothed with a short gray pubescence and the veins 

 with long, appressed hairs. In fact, the densely silkily hairy undersurface of the 

 leaves is a character belonging to the adult tree and is not developed on seedling 

 trees until they are several years old. The red color of the shoots is a juvenile 

 character only; on adult trees the color is grayish the first year, dull purple after- 

 wards and, curiously enough, this is the color of the shoots in juvenile as well as 

 adult plants of the variety Vilmoriniana. 



Davidia involucrata, var. Vilmoriniana Hemsley in Bot. Mag. 

 CXXXVIII. t. 8432 (1912). 



Davidia involucrata Oliver in Hooker's Icon. XX. t. 1961 (non Baillon) (1891). 

 — Diels in Bot. Jahrb. XXIX. 505 (1900), speciminibus Fargesianis et 

 Henryanis excludendis. — Andre in Rev. Hort. 1902, 377, fig. 158. — 

 Masters in Gard. Chron. ser. 3, XXXIII. 236, fig. 98 (1903); XXXIX. 

 346, fig. 138 (1906). — Hemsley in Jour. Linn. Soc.iXXXY. 556, t. 19 

 (1903); in Kew Bull. Misc. Inform. (1907), 301. — Veitch in Jour. Roy. 

 Hort. Soc. XXVIII. 57, fig. 11, 12 (1903). — Vilmorin & Bois, Frut. Vil- 

 morin. 145, fig. (1904). — Mottet in Rev. Hort. 1906, 297, fig. 124, 125, 

 126; 1907, 321. fig. 105. — M. de Vilmorin in Rev. Hort. Beige, XXXIV. 

 230, fig. (1908). 



Davidia Vilmoriniana Dode in Rev. Hort. 1908, 406. — M. de Vilmorin in 

 Bull. Soc. Bot. France, LV. 640 (1908). 



Davidia laeta Dode in Rev. Hort. 1908, 407. 



Western Hupeh : north and south of Ichang, woodlands, alt. 

 1500-2500 m., June 1907 (No. 2920; tree 10-20 m. tall, girth 1-1.5 m.) ; 

 Hsing-shan Hsien, moist woods, alt. 2000-2500 m., common, May 

 29, 1907 (No. 2920, in part; tree 12-20 m. tall, girth 1-2 m.); same 

 locaUty, alt. 1800 m., June 3, 1907 (No. 2920, in part; tree 16 m. tall, 



