This curious species appears to have been introduced by Mr. Miller; but, not being enumerated in the Hortus Kewensis, nor the Catalogue of the Cambridge Botanic Garden, must have been since lost. Indeed Mr. Miller informs us, that the severe winter of 1740 destroyed all the plants of it then in England. A. B. Lambert, esq. who communicated the specimens in July last from his garden at Boyton, informs us that Dr. Williams, regius professor of botany at Oxford, favoured him with the plant; and his predecessor Dr. Sibthorpe, who made two journeys into Greece to enrich us with the natural history of that interesting country, was probably the re-introducer. The name Samia is derived from the island of Samos; but Monsieur Desfontaines informs us (in his Flora Atlantica) that the original Samian plant of Tournefort and the Phlomis Samia of Linnæus (which he found wild about Mount Atlas) are different species. Both may possibly be natives of Samos: the posthumous Flora Græca of Dr. Sibthorpe, now publishing by his friend Dr. Smith, will, we trust, decide it. There is no prior figure of the plant. [Illustration] PLATE DLXXXV. SOPHORA JAPONICA. _Japanese Sophora._ CLASS X. ORDER I. _DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Ten Chives. One Pointal. ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER. CALYX 5-dentatus, supernè gibbus. Corolla papilionacea: alis longitudine vexilli. Lomentum moniliforme. CUP five-toothed, swelling above. Blossom butterfly-shaped, with wings the length of the keel. Pod necklace-shaped. SPECIFIC CHARACTER. SOPHORA foliis pinnatis: foliolis pluribus ovatis glabris: caule arboreo. _Willd. Sp. Pl._ SOPHORA with winged leaves: the leaflets numerous, ovate, and smooth: stem arborescent. REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 1. The empalement. 2. The vexillum. 3. One of the alæ. 4. The carina. 5. The chives. 6. The seed-bud and pointal. * * * * * Sophora japonica is the largest species of that genus at present known. The specimen exhibited is from a tree more than 40 feet high, in the collection of John Ord, esq. at Purser’s Cross, Fulham, which was planted by himself about fifty years ago. Our attachment to even the inanimate companions of our youth, and the pleasure we derive from them, are thus beautifully expressed by one of our English poets (Cowley, we believe): “A wood coëval with himself he sees; And loves his old cotemporary trees.”