Kerria
(named after M. Kerr, sometime Superintendent of the Botanic Garden in Ceylon). ORD. Rosaceae. A genus (one or two species) of slender-branched, twiggy shrubs. K. japonica, the only species known to cultivation, is a handsome, erect, hardy, deciduous plant. It thrives in any good loamy soil. Increased by cuttings of the young shoots, inserted under a handlight; by layers; or by divisions of the plants. The sort most generally seen in cultivation is that with double blossoms; the single-flowered form is a much more elegant plant, having a very graceful habit, and being nearly always in flower.
K. japonica (Japanese).* fl. orange-yellow, solitary, terminal; peduncles scarcely 1/2in. long, glabrous; petals five, oblong-elliptical, obtuse, spreading. l. alternate, ovate-lanceolate, sharply and doubly serrated, conduplicate, stalked, 1in. to 1 1/2in. long, 1/2in. to 1in. wide, bright green, shining, and almost glabrous above, paler and slightly hairy beneath. h. 3ft. to 4ft. Japan, 1700. (B. R. 1873; S. B. F. G. ser. ii. 337.) In addition to the single and double-flowered sorts, there is a very pretty form, having the leaves variegated with sea-green, creamy-white, and pure white.