Botanical Magazine 106 - 1880.pdf - hibiscus.org

TAB. 6486.
LONICERA TOMENTELLA.
Native of the SiJckim Himalaya.
Nat. Ord. CAPRIFOLIáCEA.•Tribe LONICEREJE.
Genus LONICERA, Linn.,- (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. vol. ii. p. 5.)
LONICERA (Xylosteum) tomentella ; erecta, ramulis rigidis strictis foliisque subtus
pilosis tomentellisve, foliis parvis breviter petiolatis ovato-oblongis obtusis
coriaceis supra glabris v. puberulis opacis nervis inconspicuis, petiolo tomentoso,
pedunculis axilíaribus solitariis v. 2-nis brevibus tomentosis 2-floris, bracteis
parvis lineari-oblongis recurvis, bracteolis in cupulam basin ovariorum amplec-
tentem glabram connatis, floribus pendulis albis inodoris, ovariis liberis v.
per paria connatis glabris, calyce breviter 5-dentato, corollte tubo anguste
infundibulari piloso, limbi subsequalis lobis brevibus rotundatis, stylo glabro,
baccïs piriformibus globosis v. didymis, seminibus parvis.
L. tomentella, Hook. f. and Thorns, in Journ. Linn. Sor. vol. ii. p. 167 ; C. B.
Clarice in Soolc.f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vol. iii. p. 12 (ined.).
Honeysuckles abound in the Himalaya, where no fewer
than twenty-two species have been detected, some of which
attain an elevation of 16,000 feet above the sea-level. The
Indian mountains are, in fact, the head-quarters of the genus,
all Europe containing but seventeen species ; the Oriental
region (from Greece to Afïghanistan) possesses exactly the
same number, according to Boissier's " Flora Orientalis ;"
the Russian dominions from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean
contain only thirteen, and North America about a dozen.
L. tomentella is a native of the interior valleys of the
Sikkim Himalaya, at elevations of 8,000 to 12,000 feet,
where I discovered it in 1849, forming a shrub ten to twelve
feet high. The specimen figured was from a plant culti-
vated at Kew from seeds, sent by me in the above-mentioned
year ; it flowers annually in July.
DESCR. A rigid bush, ten to twelve feet high, with stiff
spreading branches and slender usually densely softly
tomentose branchlets. Leaves two-thirds to one and a half
inch long, subdistichous, shortly petioled, ovate-oblong or
APRIL 1ST, 18SO.