1684 



* RHODODENDRON arboreum; var. album. 

 White Tree Rhododendron. 



DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. Erice^. Juss. (Introduction to the Natural System of 

 Botany, p. 182.) 



RHODODENDRON. Supra, vol. 1, fol. 37. 



H. arboreum ; foliis glabris lanceolatis subtus micantibus, capsula valvulis 10, 



caule arboreo. 

 a. sanguineum ; floribus atrosangulnels, foliis subtus argenteis. 

 R. arboreum. Supra, vol. II, fol. 890. 

 (i. roseum ; floribus intense roseis, foliis subtus ferrugineis. Supra, vol. 15, 



fol. 1240. 

 y. album ; floribus candidis, foliis subtus ferrugineis. 

 R. arboreum album. Wallich. PL As. rar. vol. 2, p. 23, t. 123. 



Never did we behold any flower more perfectly lovely 

 than was this when we received it from the conservatory of 

 Mr. Wells, in the month of February last. Its leaves 

 of the richest and deepest green, mellowed by the warm 

 tone of their under surface ; its large clusters of bell- 

 shaped flowers, hanging loosely yet compactly by their 

 slender stalks, and the half transparent snowy corollas, 

 without a stain or a spot, save what Nature had given them 

 to render their whiteness the more pure and brilliant, formed 

 together an eflect which few objects could rival, and none 

 surpass. Neither the rich crimson of the common Tree 

 Rhododendron, nor the deep rose-colour of its pale variety, 

 can for a moment be compared with that admirable deli- 

 cacy which no art can imitate, and no pen describe. 



Dr. Wallich, in his splendid Plantce AsiaticcB, speaks 

 thus of the native habits of this noble plant : — 



" Both it and the rose-coloured variety are confined to 

 the single mountain Sheopore, among those which I had an 



* See fol. 1240. 

 VOL. XX. F 



