4°4 
THIS beautiful fhrub fends off fpreading branches, which 
th brown bark, and rife about a foot in height : th 
are 
are oblong, obtufe, thick, veined, refiexed at the margin, on the 
upper fide" of a deep green, beneath ferruginous, or glaucous, and 
iurroundinc: the branches upon ftrong footftalks, which 
between the imbricated ftipular fquamas : the flowers are large, yellow 
and terminate the branches upon long peduncles, forming umbels : 
the calyx is perfiftent, divided into live teeth : the corolla is mono- 
petalous, wheel-maped, inclining, irregularly divided at the limb 
into five roundifh fpreading fegments : the ten filaments are flender 
reading, nearly of the length of the corolla, and furnifhed with 
oval antherse : the germen is pentagonal, indented, and fupports a 
ftyle, which is longer than the filaments, and terminated by an obtufe 
' ftigma: the capfule is egg-fhaped, fomewhat angular, and divided 
into five cells, which contain numerous fmall feeds. 
This fpecies of FJiododendron has not yet been introduced into 
Britain : it is a native of Siberia, affecting mountainous fituations, 
and flowering in June and July. 
This plant, not being found in Murray's App. Medicaminum, 
was by miftake omitted in our arrangement of the plants according 
their natural orders, where it ought to ftand in that of Bicornes 
Order 
This plant, and its medicinal effe&s, were nrft defcribed in the year 
1747, by Gmelin and Steller, 3 who mention it as frequently and fuc- 
cefsfully ufed in Siberia and other northern fituations of which it is a 
native, for the cure of rheumatifm, and other painful affedions of 
the joints. Little attention however was paid to this remedy till the 
year 1779, when it was ftrongly recommended by Koelpin as an 
efficacious medicine not n n ly i n rheumatifm, and gout but even in 
venereal cafes;' and it is now very generally employed in chro 
a It is faid, « Venatores et Glaciei mariae foflbres ad Lenam habitantes—dum primis 
Jaborum iuorum oiebus facile laffantur et a perpetuo praeruptorum montium adfcenfu 
Sdu!2? raVeS , rCS P atIuntur > laffitudini et dolori, decofto huius foliorum, biduum 
vern Tf l? ?? efficadter mederi > nullum inter dormire et quafi inebriari, brevi 
vero ad fohdiores labores fuftinendos inde appiffimos evadere." See Gmelin. /. c. 
hrlnZt' t he J*Tv "T n ^ dm Qehrauch d *r Sibirifibtn Scbncerofe in Gichtkr**- 
B. Koeplin. Berlin u. Stettin. 1779 
rheumatics 
