Tas. 4718, 
RHODODENDRON Da tuovusta. 
Lady Dalhousie’s Rhododendron. 
Nat. Ord. Extcea.—Dercanpria Monoeynia. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4336.) 
RHoDODENDRON Dalhousie ; fruticosum (subsexpedale) plerumque epiphytum, 
foliis ellipticis rigidis subundulatis mucronato-acutis (junioribus hirsutis) 
supra glabris venis impressis subtus glaucescentibus sparse lepidotis, pe- 
tiolis brevibus, floribus 3-5 terminalibus subumbellatis, calycis profunde 
5-fidi lobis oblongis obtusis ciliatis, corolle (albe) ample subcampanulate 
limbo patente 5-lobo, lobis rotundatis, stam. 10, capsula oblonga 5-loculari. 
RuopopENDRON Dalhousie. Hook. fil. Sik. Rhod. t.1, 2. Journ. of Hort. Soc. 
Lond. 0. 7. pp. 17 and 93. ol a 
Of all the Sikkim-Himalayan Rhododendrons, the present is 
perhaps the one which has excited the greatest interest, partly 
from the great size and beauty of the fragrant flowers, “ almost 
resembling those of the Bourbon Lily (Lilium candidum),” and 
partly from the peculiar place of growth, generally in its native 
localities, like tropical Orchidee, among moss, with Ferns and 
Aroidee, upon the limbs of large trees. Hence doubts have 
been expressed, as used to be the case with other epiphytes, how 
far it would be possible to succeed in the cultivation of this shrub. 
The seeds have germinated in England as freely as any, and our 
young plants have made rapid progress in a cool moist house. 
No one, however, expected to see its blossoms (belonging to a 
straggling shrub which on its native hills attains a height of six 
or eight feet) produced in cultivation in so short a space of time 
as three years from the period of the importation of the sced. 
The. earliest arrival of this seed was in the spring of 1850. Mr. 
John Laing, gardener at Dysart House (the Earl of Rosslyn’s), 
Kirkaldy, North Britain, has the honour of having been the 
first to flower this noble plant, and in March, 1853, he com- — 
municated a specimen and drawing to me, together with the i 
JUNE Ist, 1853. 
