HYDRANGEA _hortensis_ foliis ellipticis serratis glaberrimis staminibus æqualibus. _Smith icon. rar. t. 12._
PRIMULA _mutabilis_ caule suffruticoso multiplici, foliis ovatis serratis, floribus nudis. _Loureir Coch. Chin. v. 1. p. 104._
VIBURNUM _tomentosum_ foliis ovatis acuminatis serratis venosis subtus tomentosis, umbellis lateralibus. _Thunb. Jap. p. 123. ?_
SAMBUCUS aquatica surculis pinguibus punctatis, &c. Sijo vulgo Adsai et Ansai et Adsiki. _Kæmpf. Am. Exot. p. 854._ var. fl. albo, pila florida major.
It appears to be a point not yet fully determined, whether the present plant exhibits the appearances belonging to it in a state of nature, or those which are in a certain degree the effect of accident, or of art; in its fructification it certainly is not so completely barren as the Guilder Rose, _Viburnum Opulus_, cultivated in our gardens, since it has most of its parts perfect; yet as none of the authors who have seen it in China or Japan (where it is said not only to be much cultivated but indigenous[1]) describe its fruit, we are inclined on that account to regard it, in a certain degree, as monstrous.
It will appear by the synonyms, that authors have entertained very different opinions as to what this plant really is; Jussieu following Commerson makes it an _Hortensia_, Thunberg a _Viburnum_, Loureiro, ridiculously enough, a _Primula_, and Dr. Smith an _Hydrangea_.
In the original description of the characters of the genus _Hydrangea_ by Linnæus, there is no mention made of two different kinds of florets, as in the _Viburnum_, nor has any author that I am acquainted with described the _Hydrangea arbor._ as producing such; yet, to my great surprise, in a plant of this sort which flowered in my garden at Brompton in July 1797, three of the Cymæ, and three only, threw out each of them from their circumference a very different flower from those in the centre, smaller indeed, but very similar to the flowers of the _Hydrang. hort._ see Pl. 437. In 1788, Mr. Walter published his _Fl. Carolin._ in which he describes a second species of _Hydrangea_, which he calls _radiata_,[2] having very distinctly, as in the _Viburnum_, two different kinds of florets in the same Cyma, this variation in the florets is added by him to the generic character: the similarity which exists between the flowers of Mr. Walter's _Hydrangea radiata_, and those of the present plant sufficiently justify Dr. Smith in making it an _Hydrangea_; the appearances observed by Loureiro[3] on dissecting the germen, and our discovery of the existence of two different kinds of flowers in the _Hydrangea arborescens_, tend still more to confirm its propriety; we may add, that in the very habit of these several plants there exists a considerable similarity; still, however, it is only by ripe seed-vessels of the present plant, that this doubtful matter can be satisfactorily cleared up; but it will not follow, that if it be not an _Hydrangea_ it must be a _Viburnum_.