Tas. 8137. 
RHODODENDRON Detavart. 
China, 
Ericackeak, Tribe Ruoporgar. 
RwopopennRon, Linn.; Benth: et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p, 599. 
Rhododendron Delavayi, Franch. in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, 1886, vol. 
xxxili. p. 231; W. W. in Gard. Chron. 1904, vol. xxxv. p. 262; R. arboreo 
arcte affine et hujus speciei forsan varietas tantum calyce majore hirsuta 
et corolla intus maculis nigris corollae lobis isomeris ornata. 
“ Arbor ‘vel frutex paucipedalis], Folia coriacea, oblongo-lanceolata, superne 
glabra, viridi-glaucescentia, subtus tomento rufidulo brevissimo obsita, 
nervis subinconspicuis. Flores 15-30, dense congesti, intense rubri. 
Calyx pubescens, parvus, dentibus deltoideis. Corolla vix ultra pollicaris 
e basi aperta campanulata, lobis 5 rotundatis. Stamina 10, filamentis 
_ glabris. Ovariwm dense sericeo-villosum, stylo etiam basi glaberrimo.” 
Franchet, loc. sup. cit. ; 
_ Franchet’s description is unaccompanied by any com- 
parison with other species, but, as Mr. Watson remarks, 
R. Delavayi is the same in all essential characters as 
R. arboreum, and the latter, as circumscribed in the 
‘Flora of British India,” includes forms differing more 
from each other than the plant here figured does from 
Smith’s original figure in ‘‘ Exotic Botany,” voi. i, t. 6, 
of R. arboreum. Still, as a cultivated plant, it deserves a 
distinctive name, and as it has one it is retained here. 
R. Delavayi, which is distinguished by the intense red of 
its flowers with black blotches on the inside, has been in 
cultivation in Europe hearly twenty years, and at Kew 
previous to 1894, where, however, it has never flowered. 
The drawing for the accompanying plate was made from a 
specimen received, through Mr. Moore, of Glasnevin, from 
Mr. Thos. Acton, Kilmacurragh, Wicklow, where it first 
flowered in 1904, A plant was sent from Kew to Mr. 
Acton in 1894, and it is now a large bush, producing its 
very showy flowers in profusion. Kew possesses dried 
specimens from Tsangshan, Yunnan, from an elevation of 
upwards of 8,000 ft., collected by the Abbe Delavay ; 
from Mengtze, at 6,200 ft., collected by Mr. W. Hancock, 
and from the same region, collected by Dr, A, Henry at 
elevations of 6,000 to 8,000 ft. It grows in woods and in 
JUNE Ist, 1907, 
