34 



NOTE UPON DAPHNE FORTUNI. 



till after midsummer. I shall try to inspect the crop of potatoes, 

 if indeed there be any. 



If very late sowing be a preventive, it remains to be seen how 

 autumnal planting may succeed. I have put in all my late sorts 

 in deep drills made in new loamy soil without manure, excepting 

 a sprinkling of dry sawdust mixed with one-third of coal and 

 wood ashes, with a small quantity of coal-soot. Rain has fallen 

 in great profusion, and the ground is a swamp. I made no se- 

 lection, and must wait the result. 



IV. — Note upon Daphne JFortuni, a new species introduced 

 from China. By Mr. Fortune, Curator of the Botanic 

 Garden of the Society of Apothecaries at Chelsea. ( With a 

 coloured plate). 



A botanical, description of this charming shrub has been 

 already published by Dr. Lindley in the first volume of this 

 Journal.* It was discovered in a nursery -garden near Shanghae, 

 in the winter of 1843. As it is deciduous in its habits it was 

 then leafless, but when taken down to the south of China with 

 the rest of my plants for the purpose of being sent to England, 

 the warmth forced it into bloom, and I had the pleasure of see- 

 ing its flowers before it was sent off. 



When I returned to the northern provinces in the spring of 

 the following year, I found it wild on many of the hills in the 

 province of Chekiang. It here forms a dwarf shrub, two or 

 three feet high, and, like other deciduous plants, its leaves fall 

 off in autumn. Like the English Mezereum, it is the harbinger 

 of spring. In March and April the flower-buds expand, and 

 then the whole of the hill-sides are tinged with its beautiful lilac- 

 coloured blossoms, and have a very gay appearance. Before 

 they fade, the Azaleas, as if in floral rivalry, burst into bloom, 

 and give those northern Chinese hills a description of beauty 

 peculiar to themselves. 



The plant from which the drawing has been made reached 

 the garden of the Society in good condition on the 26th of July, 

 1844, and flowered in England for the first time in January, 

 1 846. It is to be hoped that it will soon be propagated in suffi- 

 cient quantity to be given away to the Fellows of the Society ; 

 at present it is extremely rare. 



Its Chinese name is JYu-lan-ee. Like the Mezereum of this 

 country, its bark is extremely acrid and poisonous, and is used 

 by the natives to produce blisters on the skin, particularly in 

 cases of rheumatism. 



* Vol. i. p. 147. 



