386 MB. c. b. clabke's botanic notes 



the trees at lower levels having smaller and wider-mouthed 

 corolla. 



Rhododendron cinnabarinum, Hook, f., is in general rather a 

 dull-coloured species, the brick-red shading off into a tawny- 

 yellow ; but there were particular trees of this species, at various 

 levels, on Sundukphoo of extraordinarily brilliant colour, the red 

 having become a scarlet and the orange entirely disappeared. 

 For gardening-purposes I can see that we must look to indi- 

 viduals, not to species. The cultivators of Ehododendrons must 

 send men to these upper levels to mark particular trees in spring, 

 and the men must come again in autumn and collect the seed of 

 the marked trees. 



I noticed the great variation with level of the Arissemas. At 

 8000-10,000 feet Ariscema GriffitMi, Schott, has the hood of the 

 spathe very much dilated, 0-8 inches broad, curved and ridged ; 

 in the same species, at 12,000 feet alt., the spathe is less than 

 one inch broad, and the dilatation and ridging are most obscure. 

 I have called this the same species : as I walked up Sundukphoo, 

 passing literally thousands of examples, the transition appeared 

 perfectly gradual from the one extreme to the other. Ariscema 

 Hookerianum and A. utile (I have looked at the numbered 

 Hookerian specimens of these which Engler takes as types) are 

 for me trifling varieties of A. GriffitMi. If they are not, then 

 I have several new species which differ a good deal more from 

 A. GriffitMi than they do. "Whatever view is taken about the 

 limits of species, there is no getting off this fork. 



Similar considerable variations I noticed in the Lilies. In 

 Smilacina, which is sorted in herbaria very much by the shape of 

 the leaves, I find the leaves to vary so greatly in nearly every 

 species, that I have no confidence that I can rightly refer the 

 herbarium fragments, except such as show the flowers tolerably. 

 Then, again, looking to cultivators' objects, Smilacina oleracea, 

 Hook. f. et T. Thorns., in its commoner smaller forms, is an elegant, 

 scarcely a striking plant ; but I saw specimens with a drooping 

 panicle of 200 snow-white flowers, which even my Bhootia coolies 

 could not resist, several of them carrying a spray in one hand a 

 few inches before the nose for miles. 



