FORSYTHIA EUROP.EA, DEGEN AND BALD AC CI : NEW SPECIES. 663 



FOESYTH1A EUROP.EA, DEGEN AND BALDACCI : NEW 



SPECIES. 



By Otto Froebel, F.R.H.S. (Zurich). 



It may be regarded as a most interesting phenomenon that in our own 

 days an entirely new shrub should have been found in Europe, the exist- 

 ence of which no one had any idea of, and the family of which had 

 hitherto only been known in Japan and China. 



This was only rendered possible through this European species having 

 its home in a part of the Balkan Peninsula in Albania, which has hitherto 

 been comparatively unexplored on account of the danger and difficulty of 

 the journey and the absence of any accommodation. I was indebted to 

 the kindness of Dr. A. von Degen in Budapest for a small packet of the 

 seed collected by him in October 1899, from which I was able to raise a 

 few plants. Thanks to careful attention the seedlings throve well, and by 

 the autumn of 1902 they had grown to be fine, strong bushes 3 feet and 

 more high ; and to my surprise, and contrary to all expectation, one 

 single plant, in 1904, produced a small number of blooms scattered over 

 two-year-old wood, but unfortunately it was not observed until too late. 

 I sent the already half-bloomed spray to Herr Beissner, in Bonn, but he 

 could not use the material for further investigation. 



The appearance of a Forsythia in Europe, whilst the other species 

 are natives of Japan and China, and no other has been elsewhere dis- 

 covered, is very remarkable, and reminds me of analogous interesting cases 

 of plant-geography in plants which have been grown for many years 

 in our gardens. I might first mention the genus Ramondia, of 

 which B. pyrenaica is found exclusively in the Pyrenees. From 

 thence Ramondias are not found until you come to Servia, where B. 

 serbica Pane, and B. Nathalies Pane, are native, then B. {Jankcea Boiss.) 

 Heldreichii on the Thessalonian Olympus. Then one does not find any 

 more of this Cyrtandrece until Japan is reached, where it is repre- 

 sented by Conandron ramondioides Sieb. and Zucc. 



A similar case is found in Picea Omorika Mast, from the Servian 

 mountains, the nearest ally of which is the P. ajanensis in Japan, and 

 throughout the whole of this enormous distance a corresponding medial 

 variety is wanting. The nearest representative of this section is found in 

 Picea sitchensis from the Pacific coast of North America. 



Forsythia europcea differs from F. suspensa by its thick, subcoriaceous, 

 entire leaves, which are narrower, long drawn out, smaller in the stem, 

 short- jointed, and in its longer pointed capsule ; from F. viridissima 

 Lindl. by its about half- sized entire, thick, subcoriaceous leaves, and by 

 the capsule ; by the same points from F. intermedia Zabel (suspensa x 

 viridissima) also, and likewise from F. Fortuni Lindl. and F. Sieboldi 

 hort. The species is especially distinguished by the form and consistence 

 of the foliage, and exhibits no near relationship with the others. Habitat 



