name £2. vernicosum now employed. A decade later seeds 
of £. vernicosum were secured by Mr. E. H. Wilson for 
Messrs J. Veitch and Sons, and the material for our plate 
came from a plant purchased by Kew from Messrs Veitch 
in 1908. It has been fully realised in English collections 
that this is not R. lucidum, Nutt., but this has been 
counterbalanced by the belief that Soulic’s species is a 
variety, var. /ucidum, of another Chinese Rhododendron 
described by Lindley in 1859 as R. Furtunei, T. Moore. 
The flowers of the true &. Fortune’ differ much from 
those of the Szechuan plant; they lack the fragrance 
and do not exhibit the crumpled appearance characteristic 
of the opening blooms of &. Fortunci. The smaller leaves, 
unequally rounded at the base, and the shape of the 
corolla-tube are also distinguishing features. Since the 
collection of F. vernicosum by Mr. Wilson, the species has 
been found again by Mr. G. Forrest in North-West 
Yunnan, where it grows on the borders of pine forests on 
the eastern flank of the Li-chiang range at about 11,000 
feet above sea-level, as a spreading shrub sometimes 
fifteen feet in height. The species is perfectly hardy 
at Kew and thrives in peaty soil or sandy loam free 
from lime. It prefers a position where it is protected 
from the rays of the mid-day sun. 
Description.—Shrub of spreading habit, in a wild state up to 15 ft. in 
height; twigs cylindric, dark brown, glabrous, somewhat polished when dry, 
+ in. thick in their second season. Leaves laxly arranged, elliptic, wide 
rounded and bluntly mucronate at the tip, unequally rounded or nearly 
truncate at the base, 23-43 in. long, 1-2} in. wide, thinly leathery, green and 
usually polished above, paler and finely closely reticulate beneath, glabrous on 
both surfaces, midrib narrowly channelled above and raised beneath, lateral 
nerves 14-16 along each side the midrib, which they leave at a wide angle, 
slender, much branched and disappearing towards the leaf-margin ; petiole 
{-i} in. long, glabrous, narrowly channelled above, Inflorescence terminal, 
about 10-flowered ; bracts densely villous, quickly deciduous; pedicels nodding, 
4-1} in. long, beset with small subsessile viscid glands. Calyx very short, 
about 7; in. long, unequally 5-lobulate ; lobules wide ovate, beset outside with 
shortly stipitate glands. Corolla pale rose, wide tubular-campanulate; tube 
1 in. long, glabrous; lobes § in. long, 2 in. wide, shallow emarginate. Stamens 
12-14, shortly exserted; filaments glabrous ; anthers yellowish-brown, } in. 
long. Ovary 6-17-celled, densely clothed with almost) sessile glands, slightly 
suleate; style longer than the stamens, pale green, 1} in long, beset with 
minute reddish short-stalked. viscid glands, crowned by the lobulate stigma. 
Tas. 8834.—Fig. 1, apex of a leaf; 2, calyx and pistil; 3 and 4, stamens; 
5, transverse section of ovary :—all enlarged. 
