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WEIGELA ROSEA. 
(Rose-coloured Weigela.) 
Class. Order. 
PENTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
CAPRIFOLIACEtE. 
Generic [Character. — Calyx tubular, tube oblong, 
limb five-cleft. Corolla funnel-shaped, five-cleft, 
regular, equal-sided at the base, lobes spreading. Sta- 
mens five, sometimes exserted. Ovary one-celled. 
Stigma doubly capitate. Style with a reniform hairy 
gland, fixed immediately at its base ; gland not adhe- 
rent to the corolla. 
Specific Character. — Plant a deciduous shrub. 
Stems erect, hairy, bearing a profusion of opposite 
hairy branches. Leaves opposite, elliptical, acuminate, 
serrated above, nearly smooth below, on very short 
petioles. Peduncles axillary and terminal, the latter 
bibracteate, and usually dichotomous. Flowers large, 
rose-coloured, disposed in pairs. Calyx bilabiate, and 
cut into five lanceolate, acuminate, unequal segments. 
Corolla monopetalous, tubular, five-parted, segments 
equal, smooth, ovate, patent, somewhat reflexed, tube 
slightly ventricose. Stamens five, smooth above, hairy 
below. Style longer than the stamens ; stigma doubly 
capitate. 
Perhaps, taking it altogether, a more beautiful hardy shrub than the one now 
figured has not been brought into this country for many years. It is one of the 
recent introductions of the London Horticultural Society, in whose garden at 
Turnham Green it flowered beautifully last April, when our drawing was kindly 
permitted to be made. 
It is a native of China, where it was first discovered by Mr. Fortune, " growing 
in a Mandarin's garden on the Island of Chusan, and was then literally loaded with 
its fine rose-coloured flowers, which hung in graceful bunches from the axils of the 
leaves, and the ends of the branches." 
It is stated by Mr. Fortune to be " unknown in the southern provinces of China, 
and is not met with on the Chinese hills in a wild state, it is therefore just possible 
that it may have been originally introduced to China from Japan ; this, however, is 
only conjecture. In the parts where it is found, the thermometer sometimes sinks 
within a few degrees of zero, and the country is frequently covered with snow ; and 
yet in these circumstances it sustains no injury. It forms a neat, middle-sized bush, 
not unlike a Philadelphus in habit, deciduous in winter, and flowers in the months 
of April and May. One great recommendation to it is, that it is a plant of the 
easiest cultivation. Cuttings strike root readily any time during the spring or 
summer months, with ordinary attention ; and the plant itself thrives well in any 
common garden soil. It should be grown in this country as it is in China, not tied 
up in that formal unnatural way in which we frequently see plants which are brought 
