il^totiobentiron ^octetp ^otes;. 
season as it does. It is very curious that a plant from the northern hemisphere 
should invariably let the spring and even midsummer go by without making the 
least sign of growth. At Kew it is always mid-July before it commences to 
move. Once started, however, it completes its growth in very quick time. Its 
flowering is equally late, and some trusses do not open until August. I have one 
specimen preserved which was gathered as late as August 24th. The young 
shoots are furnished with large, often (but not, I think, invariably), crimson 
scales which soon wither and fall away, but give a brilliant effect while they last. 
The foliage is large and handsome and is very distinct from that of all the others 
of this Fortunei group in its hairiness— 3. character which is especially noticeable 
on the leafstalk and midrib, and when the leaves are young. The flowers are 
3 to 4 inches wide, and so far as I have seen, white, but Wilson describes them 
also as rosy-red, and they have usually the characteristic seven-lobed corolla of 
this group, although occasionally it is eight-lobed. 
In conversation, Mr. Wilson has told me that although he found it nowhere 
common in a wild state, its favourite habitat is on the outskirts of woodland 
where it lives in half shade. I am confident it will do best in this country where 
it has some similar protection from full sunshine. So far, at Kew, it has flowered 
only on growths on the lower and shaded part of the plant, but that does not 
necessarily imply that shade is conducive to flowering. 
R. AURICULATUM was discovered by Prof. A. Henry over thirty years ago, 
but was not introduced until 1901, when Wilson sent seeds, collected in Western 
Hupeh, to Messrs. Veitch. It occurs as a tree occasionally 20 to 30 feet high. 
In 1917, when auriculatum was in bloom at Kew, some belated flowers of 
R. PONTicuM were found with whose pollen it was fertilized. The seedlings raised 
seem to show that a hybrid has been produced. Such a hybrid, if it combines 
some of the redundant vigour of ponticum with the late flowering of 
AURICULATUM ought to be valuable. The only other cross we have been able 
to make has been with serotinum. Attempts with R. (Azalea) occidentale 
have hitherto failed. 
February, 1919. W. J. BEAN. 
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