This species was discovered in 1897 by M. ?mile Bodinier in the mountains of Lou-tsong-koan in the province of Kweichou, western China, and was described by Mgr. L?veill? in 1904 from a dried specimen (Bodinier no. 1603) in his Herbarium. The type specimen is now in the posses- sion of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. Mr. E. H. Wilson again found the plant in 1907 in eastern Szechuan, growing on cliffs and in thickets at Wushan Hsien; but he did not collect any herbarium material, Wilson no. 256 consisting entirely of seed. Plants raised from this seed have been in cultivation in Great Britain for many years, but it was not until 1929 that Mr. Alfred Rehder of the Arnold Arboretum identified a specimen taken from one of these plants as being Hypericum kouytchense L?veill?, an identification which appears to have been correctly made from L?veill?'s somewhat meagre description. A careful comparison of specimens taken from plants grown from Wilson 256 with the type specimen of H. kouytchense, reveals the greater size of the leaves of the cultivated plants to be the chief point of difference, a point which, in this case, has no specific significance. H. kouytchense was also collected by the late Prof. Augustine Henry and Mr. Wilson in the province of Hupeh. Hypericum kouytchense is most closely allied to the poly- morphic and widely spread Asiatic species, H. patulum.

Syn. Hypericum sp. Rehder in Sargent, Pl. Wilson. III. 452 (1917).