RECENTLY INTRODUCED TREES &c. FROM CENTRAL CHINA. 61 



more. Sir J. D. Hooker in describing the Chinese species, Rubus 

 lasiostyhis, in the " Botanical Magazine," tab. 7426, states : " Having 

 regard to the extent of country in China that is botanically unexplored, 

 especially in the mountain regions, there can be no doubt but that this 

 country is the headquarters of the genus, greatly surpassing the Himalaya, 

 whence only forty species have been described. Europe may boast of a 

 far greater number of recorded species ; but the vast preponderance of 

 these are closely allied forms of one type as to the limits of which forms 

 botanists have the most divergent opinions, whereas in China and India 

 many types of the genus occur that have no allies in Europe." 



The most striking novelties are Rubus Henry i with trilobed leaves, 

 dark green and glabrous above and clothed with a dense woolly t omentum 

 on the young wood and under surface, and Rubus bambusarum, similar 

 to the preceding, but with leaves dissected into three lanceolate leaflets. 

 The latter is an evergreen climber, its narrow leaves adapted to catch the 

 scattered beams of light in the Bambco woods. The leaves are dried 

 and used as tea. 



Rubus chroosepalus is a large growing species with leaves resembling 

 those of Tilia alba. The inflorescence is a large loose panicle, but the 

 flowers are destitute of petals, the inner surface of the sepals being 

 coloured in compensation. 



Rubus irenceus is also an interesting species, apparently quite hardy. 

 The leaves are nearly circular, with a cordate base and a slightly 3-5 lobed 

 margin. The upper surface is glabrous and the under covered with a 

 white tomentum ferrugineous along the principal veins. 



Cydonia (Pyrus) catliayensis and Cydonia sinensis are two useful 

 additions to this favourite garden genus : the former has been in cultiva- 

 tion at Kew for a number of years, and has blush-white flowers ; the latter 

 has blooms of intense crimson. 



The genus Spircea is represented by many showy species, of which 

 Spircea Henry i is probably the best. (Fig. 20.) It is a shrubby plant 

 belonging to the Spircea canescens group, furnished with ovate leaves, 

 lj-H in. long by in. broad, serrated along the apical margin of the 

 leaf, slightly pilose on the upper surface, and densely so underneath. 

 The flowers are produced in dense corymbs terminating dwarf shoots 

 along the whole length of the branches. They are small individually, 

 pure white, and very showy in the mass. Another species, somewhat 

 resembling this, has been named Spircea Veitchii by Mr. Hemsley, of the 

 Kew Herbarium. It differs in having smaller leaves and flowers, the 

 former being entire and obovate and the latter produced in smaller 

 corymbs, and is said by Wilson to be Hupeh's best Spircea. Certainly 

 both species promise to be most valuable. 



The species of Neillia at present in cultivation (usually known as 

 Spiraeas) are natives either of North America or the Himalayas. 



Neillia sinensis, a new Chinese species first discovered by Dr. Henry, 

 promises to be an important addition to our ornamental flowering shrubs. 

 It forms a bush about four feet high furnished with elegant ovate- 

 acuminate leaves with irregularly serrated margins, 2| in. long by H in. 

 broad, petiolate and stipulate. The inflorescence consists of a many- 

 flowered simple raceme, 3-1 in. long, composed of rcsy-pink tubular 



