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NOTE ON SAMBUCUS CHINENSIS, Lhvll.
By H. F. Hance, Ph.D., etc,
I pointed out in my ' Adversaria in Stirpes Criticas ' (Ann. Sc. Nat.
ser. 5, V. 217), that the character assigned to this species by De Can-
doUe is erroneous,— the flowers being all hermaphrodite, and what
Lindley took for females being merely abortive flowers, in the shape of
fleshy, grandnlar, yellow, cup-shaped bodies, without a trace of either
stamens or ovary, which increase somewhat in size, turn green, and
then wither. I have since found that Professor Miquel (Fl. Ind. Bat.
vol. alt. 124) had previously suspected the en-or ; and he has, as I
think, without sufticient reason, availed himself of the presence of these
bodies, which are of no strnctural value, to found thereon his subgenus
Scyphidantlie. He remarks on the closeness of -S". Chinenm to S. Ja-
vonica, Keinw., which latter, again, Drs. Hooker and Thomson, in the
' Pr?ecursores,' note as a native of China, without, however, adducing
Lindley's name as a synonym. I have little doubt that the two are
identical, for there is nothing in Miquel's character to show a difference.
Junghuhn describes the fruit of the Java plant as yellow. Hooker and
Thomson as black, whilst about Canton it is certainly red when ripe.
A plant gathered by Maximowicz, at Yokohama, Japan, in 1862, and
sent me from the herbarium of the St. Petersburg garden, under the
name of S. Thunhergiana, Eeinw. (which I cannot find published), is
absolutely identical Avith the south Chinese one ;
but Professor Miquel,
failing to recognize this identity, has, in his ' Prolusio Florae Japo-
nicse,' described this as distinct, giving the name, however, as a manu-
script one of Blume's, and not noticing the abortive flowers ; he sug-
gests a possible affinity with S. Wlghtiana, Wall., a species which,
though described by Wight and Arnott, is omitted by Hooker and
Thomson, probably through oversight, as no explanation is given.
Though I believe Keinwardt's name of S. Javanica is the oldest, as he
has possibly given two to the same plant, it seems preferable to fall
back on that of Lindley. S. ebuloichs, Desv., recorded from the neigh-
bourhood of Canton, I have never seen.
I may here note that Dr. Williams informs me that my S. JFilUawsii
is planted in the country around Peking to mark tiie boundaries of
fields, and is known by the curious name, " kung tau lau 'rh," literally,
" the old fellow that shows high-roads." He adds that it is very
rarely met with in flower, being cut down for fuel.