A deciduous shrub 3 to 6 ft high; branches bifurcated or arranged in tiers; glabrous, reddish. Leaves clustered at the end of the twigs, 1 to 2 in. long, scarcely half as much wide, narrowly oval to obovate, fine-pointed, tapering at the base to a short stalk, minutely toothed, downy only at the base of the midrib. Flowers in a terminal cluster of three to ten, each one on a perfectly glabrous, slender, drooping stalk about 1⁄2 in. long. Corolla white, pitcher-shaped, 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 in. long, much contracted at the mouth where are five shallow, rounded, reflexed lobes, and five swellings at the base. Calyx of five awl-shaped, glabrous lobes 1⁄12 in. long. Seed-vessel 1⁄3 in. long, cylindrical. Bot. Mag., t. 5822.
Native of Japan; discovered in 1859 in the neighbourhood of Nagasaki by Sir Rutherford Alcock, and introduced some ten years later by Messrs Standish. It is easily distinguished by its white flowers on glabrous stalks. It blossoms in April, and its leaves turn a beautiful golden yellow or red in autumn.
