Daphne juliae Kozo-Pol.

Although recognised as a species in the Flora of the Soviet Union, this daphne is very near to D. cneorum and indeed less distinct from the normal form of that species than is var. verlotii. Of the characters by which Kozo-Polianski distinguished his species from D. cneorum the most marked would seem to be the narrower leaves and the more congested inflorescences, with up to twenty-five flowers in each. This daphne is, however, of great interest to plant geographers, being a local endemic found in a restricted area from north-west to south-west of Voronezh (commonest near Barkalovka) and forming part of the remarkable flora referred to under D. sophia. Its habitat is on open slopes at a few hundred feet above sea-level, where it grows in limestone rubble or lime-rich black-earth (chernozem) in a steppe-like vegetation which contains, however, many species which, like the daphne, are alien to the steppe. D. juliae was introduced to this country by Eliot Hodgkin, who received four plants from Moscow in 1960. One of these grew to be 3 ft across in the garden of the late E. B. Anderson.