Tas. 6827. 
RHODODENDRON NIVEUM, Var. FULVA. 
Native of Sikkim Himalaya. 
Nat. Ord. Ertcacex.— Tribe RHopopENDRER. 
Genus RHopoDENDRoN, Linn. ; (Benth. et Hook. J. Gen, Pi. vol. ii. p. 599.) 
RHODODENDRON niveum, Hook. f. Rhod. Sikkim Himatl., Conspect. p. 4, and in 
Journ. Hort. Soe. vii. p. 78 and 93; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 4730; Lemaire, 
Jard. Fleur. iv. t. 421 ; Clarke in Fl. Brit. Ind. vol. iii. p. 466. 
PR. Blumei, Nutt. in Hook. Kew Journ. vol. v. (1853), p. 366, 
RHODODENDRON sp., Griff. Itin. Notes, i. 185, n. 947. 
Var. fulva, foliis subtus fulvo-tomentosis. 
I have been so frequently asked whether the subject of 
the present plate can really be specifically identical with 
the Lt. niveum, which is conspicuous for the snow-white 
tomentum of the under-surface of the leaves and petioles, 
that I have had it figured for comparison with the normal 
state of that plant as figured at Plate 4730 of this work. 
It will be seen that, except in the buff clothing of the under- 
side of the leaves and the much deeper coloured and larger 
higher-coloured truss, they do not differ in any appreciable 
degree. ‘The species is remarkable as being almost the only 
one of the Himalayan which has flowers similar in colour 
to BR. ponticum (Plate 650), and F. catawbiense (Plate 1671). 
The nearest to it in this respect is the old R. campanu- 
latum (Plate 3759), which differs from nivewm in the broader 
leaves of cinnamon brown colour beneath, in the lax truss 
and toothed calyx, and in the glabrous ovary and capsule; 
it further differs in the large pale anthers which it shares 
with both the American and the Asia Minor species, those 
of nivewm bemg dark brown. 
The var. fulva is one of the original plants raised from 
seeds sent by me in 1848-9 from Sikkim, and is planted in 
a border bed in the 8.W. angle of the Temperate House, 
where it flowered freely annually, and far exceeds in beauty 
JULY Ist, 1885. 
