Tas. 5060. 
RHODODENDRON vircatum. 
Twiggy Rhododendron. 
Nat. Ord. Exicea.—Drcanpria Monoeynia. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4336.) 
RHODODENDRON virgatum ; erecta, ramis gracilibus, ramulis junioribus calyce 
ovario petiolis foliisque subtus squamulis peltatis obsitis, foliis oblongis 
acutis brevi-petiolatis subtus glaucescentibus, floribus axillis foliorum ter- 
minalium singulo bracteato, bracteis amplis imbricatis, lobis ealycinis ro- 
tundatis ciliatis, corollz tubo infundibuliformi dorso villoso, limbi paten- 
tis lobis late ovatis, staminibus 8-10, filamentis inferne villosis, ovario 
5-loculari. 
RaopopenpRon virgatum. Hook. fil. Rhod. Sik. Himal. t.26 A. Journ. Hort. 
Soc. Lond. v. 7. p. 81 (excluding the syn. of R. trifloram, Hook. fil.). 
__ One of the many interesting Rhododendron discoveries of Dr. 
Hooker in Sikkim-Himalaya, where it abounds in the skirts of 
the Pine-forests in ravines at elevations of 8000 to 9000 feet of : 
the Lachen Valley. Mr. Booth detected the same plant in simi- 
lar localities in Bhotan, and the flowering-specimen here figured 
is frém the garden of Mr. Lowe, of the Clapton Nursery, having 
been raised from seeds sent by Mr. Booth to Mr. Nuttall. It 
flowered in April, in a cool frame. Dr. Hooker was probably 
im error in considering his R. triforum to be a yellow-flowered 
variety of the present. ‘The leaves and inflorescence are consi- 
derably different. ; 
Descr. This may be reckoned among the dwarfish kinds of 
the genus, not rising more than a foot and a half high, but with 
graceful, slender, twiggy branches (whence the specific name), 
the new shoots being covered with copious, orbicular, peltate 
scales. Similar scales occur, aud equally copiously, on the under 
side of the leaves, on the petioles, base of the calyx, and on the 
ovary. Leaves scattered chiefly on the upper portions of most 
of the branches, short, petiolate, or oblong-lanceolate, acute and 
submucronate, rather coriaceous, dark full-green above, glabrous, 
JULY Ist, 1858. 
