In a collection of dried specimens of plants sent to the Horticultural Society from China, by Mr. Reeves, are a few branches, with flowers, of a remarkable genus which is at present undescribed, but which is of so curious a nature, and of such importance with reference to the determination of some natural affinities, that I have thought it deserving immediate record; especially as drawings of the fruit, which have been subsequently obtained from the same indefatigable correspondent of the Society, render its history tolerably complete. The _branches_ appear to be fragments of an evergreen tree; they are slender, rounded, and smooth. The _nascent gemmæ_ are covered with a dense rufous pubescence. The _leaves_ are alternate, becoming, towards the extremities of the branches, opposite by approximation; their form is ovate-lanceolate acuminate, and in size they vary from three inches to nearly six in length; the surface, even of the youngest, is perfectly smooth on each side; their veins are inconspicuous, the lowest pair of venæ primariæ being divergent at an angle of about 40°, while the others spread outwards at an angle of 55° or 60°; the venæ arcuatæ and externæ are obscurely seen, but form together a number of rhomboidal spaces, equal in diameter to nearly one third of each side of the leaf; the proportion borne by the petiole to the lamina is variable, sometimes equalling one-fourth of the length of the latter, and not unfrequently being less than one-sixth of its length: this proportion not depending upon the station of the leaves; the petiole is smooth, half-round, and thickened at the extremity, where it unites with the lamina. _Stipulæ_ are none. The _flowers_ are greenish-white, in terminal thyrsoid compound racemes; the upper part of the _rachis_, and of its branches, is slightly protected by stellate pubescence; the _pedicles_ are closely covered with pubescence of the same nature, and have one subulate downy deciduous bracteola at the base, and another towards the apex. The _calyx_ is inferior, campanulate, tapering a little towards the base, densely clothed with stellate pubescence, bursting irregularly at the apex into [p110] four or five ovate teeth, which are somewhat imbricated during æstivation, but which are separated by the growth of the petals long before the expansion of the flower; the veins of the calyx are remarkably reticulated, and when cut, a considerable quantity of mucilaginous viscid fluid is exuded. The _petals_ are whitish-green, hypogynous, with a convolute æstivation; their _ungues_ are spatulate, and as long as the calyx; their _laminæ_ oblong, spreading flat, and then overlapping each other at the base; at the point of separation of the unguis and lamina is a small callus, and on each side a notch upon the margin. The _stamens_ are seated upon a long, filiform, subclavate, smooth torus; the _filaments_ are consolidated into a capitate five-toothed cup, nearly closed at the orifice, and on