334 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
suffruticose thing, with fringy soft-pink flowers on long willowy 
sprays, that began to abound in the rough grass of the waysides 
in Northern Szechwan in October and November, but of which the 
collected plants, which were all that was possible, entirely refused to 
survive the trans-Siberian journey. Of those collected the principal are : 
Gentiana sp. (F 579) belongs to the Macrophylla group, I believe, 
and is a species of many slender uprising stems from a wide mass of 
limp and glossy narrow foliage. In August the 9-12 inch stalks 
unfold their clusters and terminal heads of narrow tubular blossoms 
in such profusion that, though these never open very effectively 
the show produced by the mass of their solid sapphire-blue opaque 
exteriors is as attractive as anyone could desire. This likes the grassy 
open situations affected by G. cruciata, and is not uncommon at some 
nine to ten thousand feet in the open stony lawns of the Da-Tung 
valleys. (Photograph.) 
Gentiana sp. (F 750) is, as I discover from the proofs of " The English 
Rock Garden," almost certainly G. triflora, and a remarkably hand- 
some plant, with whose multitudes the high alps of the Da-Tung 
turn all of soft water-blue in August. It may be figured as a very 
large G. Pneumonanthe of eight inches or so, with very much bigger 
trumpets, clustered towards the tops of the stems, and in colour of 
soft pale blue. It does not look as if any difficulty should attend its 
culture in a cool climate and cool vegetable soil. In the Serchim 
range below the Koko-nor a perfectly dwarf species or form of this is 
found, creamy-white with big, baggy, erect bells. But of this there 
is no certain seed. (Photograph.) 
Gentiana sino-ornata is F 807, and, as I have seen it, incompar- 
ably supreme above all the most beautiful of its race. Its glory on 
the high grassy passes and alps of the Da-Tung in the end of September 
is something positively stupefying. Seed there was obviously none 
to be got, and only two plants survived the tremendous journey 
home. But G. sino-ornata has already been introduced (I hope in 
as good a form as that of the Da-Tung), so I need not deplore the 
lack ; meanwhile I have it also in a photograph and a painting, for 
part-proof of the praise I give it in the text of "The English Rock 
Garden," now that I have clearly realized its marvellousness with 
my own eyes. 
Hypericum sp. F 757 is certainly H. patulum Henryi, which abounds 
throughout the Da-Ba-S'an as you get into their ranges towards 
Szechwan. 
Iris sp. F 497 is I. Bungei. Amid a dense clump of long glossy 
leaves, very narrow, and dark green, suggesting those of /. graminea or 
I. prismatica, lurk spidery thin flowers of purple, not in themselves 
very remarkable, but illustrious in the intensity of their violent violet 
fragrance, more acute than even in /. reticulata, and haunting all the 
hot air in June on the blazing loess down about the mouth of Tien 
Tang ghyll. (The only place where I ever saw it, the clumps dotted 
among the course tufts of grass.) (Painting.) 
