334 Pram. — A Review of the genera 
of which has a stigma of the same character. This group also traverses the character 
to be derived from the stem, for two species, M. integrifolia and M. grandis , have 
distinct stems ; the others have none. It traverses besides the character based 
on the presence or absence of a style ; two species, M. integrifolia and M. punicea , 
have none ; the others have a well-developed style. The group treats outstanding 
physiological features with equally scant ceremony. M. punicea , M. quintuplinervia , 
M. simplicifolia , and M. pseudointegrifolia all flower in one year from seed, all 
lose their crown of leaves during the intervening winter, and all die after flowering. 
M. integrifolia , too, has proved monocarpic with all those, and they are now numerous, 
who have grown it in Europe. At Kew this species flowers in twelve months from 
seed, loses its crown of leaves during the winter months, and dies after flowering. 
Both at Kew and at Coombe Wood it is found that plants a year old which fail 
to flower, die at the same time as plants of the same batch which have flowered. 
Seeds are found to ripen freely and germinate quickly if sown when ripe. They 
also germinate well if kept till the following spring. Messrs. Veitch & Sons 
find the best results are obtained by sowing in June and planting out when the 
seedlings are 2-2-5 in* high; plants so treated flower early in the summer following. 
A curious deviation from the experience at Kew and Coombe Wood has, however, 
been recently recorded by Mr. G. M. Sanders (Garden, Ixx. 100), where seed of 
this species did not germinate till a year after sowing, and Mr. M. L. de Vilmorin 
has also experienced an equally interesting deviation with plants of M. integrifolia 
which, owing to a casual exigency, had to be grown in pots instead of being 
planted out. These did not flower in one year from seed and yet did not die. They 
lived through a second winter and flowered, as the species of the group Robustae 
do, in the second year from seed, dying after flowering. For this species it is found 
at Coombe Wood that full exposure is essential and that the plants improve if there 
are cold rough nights during the flowering stage. This experience, to those familiar 
with the climatic conditions of the Tibetan borderland, is not surprising. The 
plants flower well in open quarters but the best results are obtained in partial shade. 
M. grandis , the last species of this group, was introduced to European horticulture 
from India a number of years ago. The first to flower the plant in England was 
the late Mr. Thompson of Ipswich. It has since been flowered at Coombe Wood, 
at Neston, and at Edinburgh. At Kew this, like M. bella , has always perished 
in the seedling stage. At Coombe Wood it flowered poorly and did not prove 
perennial At Neston it has proved polycarpic but has only been kept alive under 
protection. At Edinburgh, however, it has done well and has proved definitely 
polycarpic. Writing in August, 1906, Professor Balfour says: ‘About a dozen 
plants which flowered this year are now forming their new crown-bud foliage. One 
old plant has flowered in at least a dozen successive years and is vigorous, with 
a group of daughter lateral shoots at the base/ At Edinburgh the crown leaves 
persist during winter. If only morphological characters be considered, it is difficult 
to separate this species from M. simplicifolia , from which it mainly differs by having 
a distinct scapose stem and by being rather larger in all its parts. Yet M. simplici- 
folia , like the other species of the group except M. grandis , is monocarpic and 
loses its crown of leaves during the winter that intervenes between seed and flower. 
