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Eurya japonica Thunb.

Modern name

Eurya japonica Thunb.

Synonyms

E. pusilla Sieb.

A dwarf evergreen shrub, with alternate, dark, glossy green leaves, which are 112 to 3 in. long, oval or obovate, toothed, blunt at the apex, quite glabrous (like the twigs), shortly stalked. Flowers unisexual, very small and inconspicuous, white, produced singly or in twos or threes from the axils of the leaves; each flower 18 in. across on a stalk about as long. Fruit black, and as large as a peppercorn. Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 588.

At Kew this little shrub is hardy when once thoroughly established, but is sometimes injured by severe frost when young. It is easily increased by cuttings. What is considered by botanists to be the same species is found not only in China and Japan but in the mountains of N. and S. India, Ceylon, the Malay Archipelago, even as far east as Fiji. In these places, even in Japan, it sometimes becomes a small tree 30 ft high, but the form cultivated in Britain is quite a dwarf and slow-growing bush, and is perhaps the most northerly and hardiest form. It is evidently the plant distinguished as E. pusilla by Siebold, who gave several forms of this eurya specific rank. It is an interesting ally of the tea plant, and a neat little evergreen.


Genus

Eurya

Other species in the genus

[No species article available]