290 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



made I let the subject drift from my mind. On 

 May 19th when collecting near the hamlet of Ta-wan, 

 distant some five days southwest of Ichang, I sud- 

 denly happened upon a Davidia tree in full flower! 

 It was about fifty feet tall, in outline pyra- 

 midal, and with its wealth of blossoms was more 

 beautiful than words can portray. When figuring 

 Henry's fruiting specimens in Hooker's "Icones Plan- 

 tarum" (XX. t. 1961, [1891]) the Keeper of the Kew 

 Herbarium wrote: "Davidia is a tree almost deserving 

 a special mission to western China with a view to its 

 introduction to European gardens." On beholding 

 this extraordinary tree for the first time I no longer 

 marvelled at the Keeper's strong language. And 

 now with a wider knowledge of floral treasures of the 

 Northern Hemisphere I am convinced that Davidia 

 involucrata is the most interesting and most beautiful 

 of all trees which grow in the north temperate re- 

 gions. The distinctive beauty of the Davidia is in 

 the two snow-white connate bracts which subtend 

 the flower proper. These are always unequal in 

 size — the larger usually six inches long by three inches 

 broad, and the smaller three and one half inches by 

 two and one half inches ; they range up to eight inches 

 by four inches and five inches by three inches. At 

 first greenish, they become pure white as the flowers 



