KlIODODEXDKOXS 27 



viouslj figured, will interest botanists, as will the nnmerous half-tone 

 plates from photographs taken in China by Mr. Forrest showing the 

 species as they actually grow. As to the letter- press, Mr. Millais 

 tells us that " iio one can realize what an amount of uncollected facts 

 both as to history, culture and experience there is lying hidden away 

 in the brains of men that have made this genus their hobby " ; and 

 this he has brought together with the results of the work of modern 

 hybridists and descriptions — chiefly of Chinese species — scattered 

 through various books and journals and not accessible in a collected 

 form. A special chapter is devoted to tbe history of the Chinese 

 species, in the course of which Mr. Forrest gives a long hitherto 

 unpublished " summary of all his wanderings as well as the character 

 of the country traversed and the various Khododendrons to be found 

 there." Another important chapter gives a very full account of the 

 histoi-y of the hybridizing of Khododendrons, beginning with the first 

 recorded — the date is not given — which " resulted in Mr. Thompson's 

 nurser}' in London tlu'ough the accidental crossing of R. ponticum 

 and R. iiudi-florum : it is still well known to-day under the name of 

 R. odoratum or R. azaleoides.'''' " The first successful [intentional] 

 cross may be said to have been R. arhoreuin-\- R. ponticum=- R. alta- 

 clarense, Avhich Lord Carnarvon made at Highclere [near Newbury] 

 about the year 1828." Mr. Millais refers to Eot. Mag. Ixii. 183-5, 

 t. ;3423 for an account of this, but an earlier and fuller notice, — 

 which includes a letter from James Kobert Gowen, who directed the 

 crossing — will be found in Bot. Reg. xvii. t. 1414 (1831) : the 

 crossing was performed in 1826 and the plants thence obtained 

 fiowered in 1831. 



Tlie history of the introduction of the genus to cultivation in this 

 countr}- is thus briefly simimarized : " The first to be introduced was 

 R. nuixiiinim which was first flowered in 1756 by James Gordon of 

 Mile Fnd. 7^. ^on if «ct^wi was introduced in 1763 and R. Caucasiuin 

 [sic] in 1803. R. cafawhiense came in 1809 (Paxton), when John 

 Fraser sent plants to his nursery in Sloane Square and it was con:imon 

 in gardens in 1838. R. arhoreum appeared about 1820 ": this had 

 been figured by Smith in 1805 {Exotic Flora, p. 6) from a drawing- 

 sent by its discoverer, Captain (afterwards Major-General) Thomas 

 Hardwicke, who sent large quantities of seed to England. 



It is to be regretted that Mr. Millais was not able to carry out 

 his intention of giving, with the help of Mr. J. Hutchinson, a com- 

 j)lete key to the genus : with a view to this Mr. Hutchinson had 

 hoped to examine the herbaria of other countries, " but present 

 conditions have naturally rendered this quite impossible." His sec- 

 tional distribution of the species is based on that of Bentham and 

 Hooker (1876), which is obviously quite out of date: he also gives, 

 for the benefit of growers, an elaborate artificial key extending over 

 fifteen pages, to the cultivated species. This is followed by Mr. Mil- 

 lais's list, with full descriptions of species and hybrids, alphal)etically 

 arranged. One is sorry that in so fine a work anything should lie 

 neglected that may add to its perfection ; but the typogra])hical 

 arrangement leaves something to be desired, and the niispi-ints — 

 not in this ])ortion only — are far too nnmei'ous. 



Mr. Millais's modest avowal that hi> ••knowledge of Ixitanv as a 



