HYDRANGEA JAPONICA. 
(Japan Hydrangea.) 
Class. Order. 
DECANDRIA. DI-TRIGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
SAXIFRAGACEiE. 
Generic Character.— Flowers usually of more forms 
than one, some of them being fertile and hermaphro- 
dite. Tube of Calyx hemispherical, ten-ribbed, rather 
truncate, adnate to the ovarium ; limb permanent, 
five-toothed. Petals five, regular. Stamens ten. Styles 
two, distinct. Capsule two-celled, with introflexed 
valves, crowned by the teeth of the calyx and styles, 
fiattish at the top, opening by a hole between the styles. 
Seeds reticulated, numerous. 
Specific Character.— Plant an elegant, evergreen, 
branching shrub. Leaves ovate-oblong, acuminated, 
finely and glandularly serrated, quite glabrous on both 
surfaces. Cymes crowded. Flowers of two forms. 
Corolline segments six to ten, unequal, ovate-rhomboid. 
We have been so long accustomed to see the old Hydrangea kortensis produce 
its immense flower-heads of a bluish, or a rosy hue, either upon the same or 
separate specimens, that we almost cease to regard the matter as anything singular 
or wonderful. Of late years another species has been introduced, which also 
displays both colours, but whether they are produced by different varieties, or by 
the same plant under different circumstances, seems to be yet a matter of dispute. 
All that we know is that a specimen at Messrs. Low's nursery, Clapton, bears 
none but blue flowers ; and it is said that those which have been reared from it 
are characterised by the same peculiarity. Moreover, specimens that we have 
known for some time in other collections have been invariably of a rosy colour. 
According to Siebold, who discovered the plant and transmitted specimens to 
Europe, its vernacular title is Kakoosa ; and there are two varieties of it, which 
the natives distinguish as Benkaku and Konkaku, the first with red and the 
second with greyish-blue flowers. From this it would seem that the variation is 
permanently vested in particular plants ; nevertheless we cannot but strongly 
suspect that it will prove the contrary. 
The plant has an excellent free habit, emitting branches from every part, and 
seldom exceeding eighteen inches or two feet in height. The foliage is large and 
bold, but not quite so closely arranged as in the old kind. The flower-heads, 
though possessing considerable beauty, are flat, and by no means so magnificent as 
the enormous clusters of its congener : the blue-coloured ones are decidedly the 
prettiest. 
