Dunn— A Key to the Labiatae of China. 129 



same region a much wider range, adorning with its intensely 

 blue spikes the margins of springs and rivulets as far north as 

 the Yangtze and as far east as the damp upland woods of Fukien. 



4. Transferring our attention now to the opposite or north- 

 east corner of China, Plectranthus glaucoides, Thyme {Thymus 

 Serpyllum), Scutellaria scordifolia, and S. viscidula are known in 

 the empire only from Shantung and Chili, the north-eastern- 

 most provinces. Plectranthus amethystoides, Mosla dianthera, 

 and M. lanceolata are examples of the numerous species extending 

 down the whole east coast on the dry grassy ranges so well known 

 to mariners of the coastwise routes. Salvia miltiorrhiza, on the 

 other hand, though abundant in the northern coastal provinces, 

 does not reach further south than Chekiang and extends west- 

 wards to Hupeh. 



5. Ajuga ciliata follows a diagonal south-west course from 

 the north-east as far as central China, while such species as 

 Nepeta Cataria continue the same south-west line across the 

 whole country as far as Yunnan. 



6. A few maritime species such as Hyptis suaveolens follow the 

 salt marshes from the south as far as Fukien, but in this family, 

 as in the rest of the Chinese flora, few species are restricted to 

 saline regions. 



7. Scutellaria macrantha, one of the finest Labiate plants 

 of the flora, is confined, like a few other species, to the line of 

 northern provinces. 



8. The centre of China, viz. Hupeh and its neighbourhood, 

 is, so far as records show, the home of an unusually large number 

 of endemic species, such as Salvia M aximowicziana and Phlomis 

 gracilis ; but it must be remembered that the region has become 

 better known than almost any other in consequence of the 

 inclusion of Henry's vast collections there in the material 

 elaborated by Hemsley in his Enumeration of the plants of China 

 in the Linnean Journal. 



9. As regards endemic elements in the various provinces 

 there is doubtless everywhere a comparatively large proportion 

 of species exclusively confined to each of the numerous isolated 

 and peculiar tracts which occur throughout the country, and 

 every new mountain which is botanically explored yields its 

 quota of novelties. In the writer's own experience, a month's 

 sojourn on the central range of Fukien contributed some 30-40 

 new species to the flora ; while three days on the sacred mountain, 

 Hong Wong Shan, near Swatow, has enriched our knowledge 

 with many beautiful species before unknown. Yunnan has 

 a very large list of exclusive species, having been the hunting- 

 ground of three most energetic collectors whose finds were 

 examined and described by, or for, three of the most efficient 



