It is most readily distinguished from the latter species 
by the more elegant habit, the smaller leaves, the 
differently coloured flowers and the more slender fila- 
ments. Like most of the Rhododendrons from China 
with scaly leaves, #. Davidsonianum gives promise of 
being very hardy. Its value as a garden plant will 
probably be similar to that of R. yunnanense, Franch., a 
Chinese species figured at t. 7614 of this work, and like 
that species it can be increased by means of late summer 
cuttings. 
Description.—Shrub, 34-10 ft. high ; branches divari- 
cate, terete, brown or greyish, glabrous; young twigs 
short, very finely puberulous or glabrous. Leaves lanceo- 
late or oblong-lanceolate, with a markedly mucronate 
tip, base obtuse or slightly rounded, 1-2} in. long, 1—3 in. 
wide, rigidly chartaceous, above at first sparingly black- 
dotted, at length glabrous and when dry strongly veined, 
beneath closely covered with small rounded glands; 
midrib flat above, inconspicuous, raised beneath, pale, 
gradually narrowed from base to tip, and prolonged into 
the long mucro; lateral nerves slightly visible above, 
arched, beneath hardly visible; petiole 1} in. long, 
sometimes faintly puberulous. Bud-scales suborbicular, 
slightly mucronate, coriaceous, densely ciliate, glabrous 
outside. lowers terminal, about 6-nate ; pedicels 1—2 in. 
long, covered with long rounded sessile glands. Calyx 
undulate, very short or nearly obsolete. Corolla pale 
rose, 1}-1? in. across, upper lip yellow-lepidote; tube 
about 4 in. long, slightly enlarged upwards, glabrous on 
both sides; lobes 5, oblong with rounded tips, about 
% in. long and } in. wide, finely striate. Stamens 10, far 
exserted ; filaments slender, up to 1} in. long, shortly 
pubescent near the base; anthers carmine, +), in. long or 
less. Ovary conical, densely scaly; style far exserted, 
slender, 15-1? in. long, glabrous, tipped by the undu- 
lately lobed subcapitate stigma. Fruit } in. long, } in. 
across, 
Figs. 1 and 2, upper portions of leaves showing the conspicuous mucro; 
83, scales from lower surface of leaves ; 4, pistil and calyx; 5, stamen; 6 and 7, 
anthers :—all enlarged. 
