RECENTLY INTRODUCED TREES &c. FROM CENTRAL CHINA. 59 



•uncommon. Its cream- white flowers, delightful fragrance, and handsome 

 foliage are well known to all who have visited the Japanese forests. 



Magnolia Delavayi withstood the past winter uninjured, and promises 

 in an unusual degree to be an addition to the hardy evergreen species of 

 •our gardens. It is figured in Franchet's "Plants Delavayanae," where 

 the flowers are represented as egg-shaped, of great substance, and pure 

 •white in colour. 



Eucommia ulmoidcs is a rubber-producing plant, remarkable in that 

 it adds another and distinct natural order containing plants yielding this 

 important economic product, and in being indigenous to temperate 

 regions, whereas the others are tropical. It is highly valued in Chinese 

 materia medica, but the medicinal value, if any, is uncertain from a 

 European standpoint. 



Corydalis thalictrifolia is already known, having been exhibited on 

 several occasions during the past year, and frequently figured in the 

 horticultural press. 



Two other species of this genus also promise well, especially Corydalis 

 tomentella, with glaucous green leaves covered with a white tomentum, 

 somewhat resembling Edelweiss ; and another, appropriately named 

 ■Corydalis cheilanthifolia, with leaves resembling a finely cut fern frond. 

 This last-named species has withstood the past winter uninjured, and is 

 apparently quite hardy, although the flowers are the most insignificant 

 of the three species referred to. 



Actinidia chinensis is by far the most important species of a genus 

 which is represented in China by many of more or less horticultural 

 value. (Fig. 15.) 



The existence of this plant has long been known to science, specimens 

 having been sent home by Fortune when travelling for the Eoyal 

 Horticultural Society, and described by Planchon in Hooker's " London 

 Journal of Botany," vol. vi. (1847), p. 303. It was also discovered 

 by Maries when travelling for us in the North Island of Japan, and is 

 mentioned by him in his letters to "The Garden," vol. xxi. (1882), 

 p. 101. Actinidia chinensis has many claims on the gardener, having 

 beautiful foliage, handsome and numerous flowers, and an edible fruit. 



In habit a climber, with petiolate sub-orbicular leaves, 3^-4 in. wide 

 .at their broadest part, in. at their narrowest, dark green and glabrous 

 •on the upper, and densely tomentose on the under surface, and when 

 first produced densely covered with red hairs. The flowers are borne 

 in clusters on dwarf shoots and are 1^ in. across, bright yellow in 

 colour, inclosing numerous stamens. The fruit, about the size and shape 

 of a Walnut, is covered with hairs in a varying degree of denseness : in 

 flavour, so- far as can be judged from Chinese preserves, it resembles 

 ripe Gooseberries, and may prove, if freely produced in this country, a 

 •desirable hardy fruit. It grows freely in England. 



Stuartia monogyna and Camellia Grijsii, also belonging to this 

 family, are additions to our hardy shrubs. 



Amongst several additions to the Hollies from China perhaps the 

 .most important is Ilex Pernyi, so named by Franchet in compliment to 

 the French missionary, Paul Perny, who discovered it during his travels 

 in China between the years 1850-1860. It is a very dense-growing 



