276 WILSON EXPEDITION TO CHINA 



Sorbus Koehnei Zabel in Beissner, Schelle & Zabel, Handb. Laubholz-Ben. 200 

 (1903). 

 Central and southern Japan. 



Sorbus japonica, var. calocarpa Rehder, n. var. 



A typo recedit praecipue fnictu aurantiaco- v. aureo-luteo levi pj-riformi v. 

 ovoideo 1.5 cm. longo et foliis subtus dense tomento niveo adpresso persistenti 

 vestitis ad 10 cm. longis et ad 8 cm. latis. 



Hondo: around Lake Yumoto, common in woods, Oct. 15-19, 1914, E. H. 

 Wilson (No. 7643, type; tree 12-20 m. tall, 1.75-3.25 girth, fruit golden-yellow); 

 same locality, June 22-24, 1914, E. H. Wilson (No. 6842); same locaUty, in Hem- 

 lock forest, September 6, 1892, C. *S'. Sargent. 



This is a very striking and handsome variety with its large bright yellow fruits 

 and the large leaves silvery white on their under surface; in the type the fruits are 

 red and marked with white dots wanting in the variety, and the leaves have a 

 looser more floccose tomentum which sometimes partly wears off towards autumn, 



15. Sorbus Hemsleyi Rehder, n. comb. 



Micromeles Hemsleyi Schneider, III. Handb. Lanbholzk. I. 704, fig. 388'', 389° 

 (1906); in Fedde, Rep. Spec. Nov. HI. 152 (1906). 

 Western Hupeh: A. Henry (No. 6830% type, 6269, ex Schneider). 



16. Sorbus Folgneri Rehder. See p. 271. 



In the preceding account of the Chinese species of Sorbus (excl. sect. Aucuparia) 

 I have followed Hedlund and Schneider in the limitation of the genus except that 

 I include Micromeles, which is considered a distinct genus by these authors. De- 

 caisne, who founded the genus Micromeles, distinguishes it from his Aria chiefly by 

 the smaller flowers, the epigynous disk and the deciduous calyx. The difference 

 in the size of the flowers is not very marked and has hardly any significance as a 

 generic character. In typical Aria as represented by Sorbus Aria which Decaisne 

 figures, the disk is certainly perigynous, but in such species as S. cuspidala Hed- 

 lund {Aria lanata Decaisne), S. Hedlundii Schneider (Aria crenata Decaisne), S. 

 japonica Hedlund and S. alnifolia K. Koch enumerated by Decaisne under Aria, the 

 disk is as distinctly epigynous as in the species referred by him to Micromeles. The 

 deciduous calyx is not a distinguishing generic character with Decaisne, as he in- 

 cludes S. japonica and S. alnifolia, which both have a deciduous calyx, in Aria. 

 This leaves no clear distinction between the two genera. Koehne tried to correct 

 this inconsistent characterization of Micromeles and made the deciduous calyx the 

 chief generic character, referring the species with deciduous calyx, as S. japonica 

 and S. alnifolia which Decaisne had placed under Aria, to Micromeles. Consider- 

 ing, however, the fact that in allied genera like Pyrus and Mains species with a 

 deciduous and with a persistent calyx exist, and that if these species are generically 

 separated by this character alone very artificial genera would be created, it is hardly 

 possible that in Sorbus the behavior of the calyx should be a sufficient character 

 for generic distinction. That the generic affinity of all the species with deciduous 

 calyx is not very obvious, may be inferred from the fact that Decaisne included 

 only one part of these species in his Micromeles and left the other in Aria. These 

 two groups of species show indeed in all other characters, aside from the behavior 

 of the calyx, a less close relation to each other than each of them has to certain 

 species of Sorbus. We have here the same case in Malus where the classification 

 according to leaf-characters gives an entirely different and apparently more natural 

 arrangement than that based on the behavior of the calyx. In Micromeles 

 Koehne we have two distinct groups : one which has simply, more or less crenately 

 serrate leaves with fewer and curving veins, and subglobose usually lenticellate 



