192 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
NEW OR NOTEWORTHY PLANTS IN THE SOCIETY'S 
GARDEN, II. 
3. BUDDLEIA ALTERNIFOLIA Maxim (fig. 48). 
As long ago as 1880 Buddleia alternifolia was described by 
Maximowicz,* but it was not introduced to English gardens until the 
late Mr. Reginald Farrer found it on his Kansu journey in 1914. He 
sent home seeds under his number F100, and many plants were raised 
at Wisley and elsewhere, and many of these seedlings and cuttings from 
them have been distributed from Wisley at the annual distributions 
since 191 7. 
He thus described it : f 
It is found occurring down the little tributary which joins the Blackwater 
at Naindzai, ranging sporadically up that district as far as Lodanee, and with a 
big outburst below Tan Ch'ang in the Nan Ho Valley ; it prefers steep dry banks 
and open warm places, where it grows like a fine-leaved and very graceful weeping- 
willow, either as a bush or a small-trunked tree, until its pendulous sprays erupt 
all along into tight bunches of purple blossom at the end of May, so generous 
that the whole shrub turns into a soft and weeping cascade of colour. It ought 
to do well in England, but will probably take time before it shows the full elegance 
and profusion of its lovely character. 
Farrer learned to appreciate its charms on that journey, for he 
praises it more than once, e.g., " the lovely cousin, who sweeps in long 
streaming cascades from all the loess cliffs about Naindzai, like a 
gracious small-leaved weeping- willow when it is not in flower, and a 
sheer waterfall of soft purple when it is." J 
" The weeping Buddleia is still in lavish waterfalls of purple 
beauty." || 
It is cultivated by the Chinese about Naindzai and Siku, but a 
little farther north it is a hedgerow plant among the cornlands, though 
not reaching to any great elevation. 
It has proved absolutely hardy in England, and very distinct from 
other Buddleias in the characters which Farrer emphasizes, and 
especially in its narrow alternate grey willow-like leaves and its habit 
of flowering along the shoots of the previous year. It needs pruning, 
like a Forsythia or black-currant, to induce the formation of the long 
slender-curving wands on which its flowers are to be produced, but, 
apart from that, little attention. It is growing at Wisley on dry banks 
and borders, and on the side of the large pond in " Seven Acres," and 
is perhaps best there. Its roots go far down, with little branching, and 
it is therefore not very easily transplanted when large, though it may 
* Maximowicz, in Bull. Acad. St. Peters, xxvi. (1880), p. 494, from specimens 
collected in Kansu on the southern side of the Hoangho, and elsewhere in that 
district. 
f Farrer, Journal R.H.S. 43, p. 63. 
% Farrer, On the Eaves of the World, 1, p. 252 (1917). 
|| loc. cit. vol. 2, p. 3. 
