1924] WILSON, THE RHODODENDRONS OF HUPEH 89 



plants look best when seen from above. The flowers are large, very 

 numerous and crowded into a dense rounded truss, the color varies from 

 pale to rose-pink and rosy lilac and the interior of the corolla may be 

 spotted or blotched with maroon or red-purple. At the lowest altitudinal 

 level at which it grows wild the flowers open early in April before the 

 snow has finally disappeared. Higher up on the mountains the flowering 

 is delayed until May but this species is the earliest of its class to open its 

 flowers. This was the first Rhododendron I saw in Hupeh and it was in 



bloom on April 9, 1900. 



Rhododendron sutchuenense was discovered by A. Henry in 1888 but 

 was named from specimens gathered by Pere P. Farges round Tchen- 

 keou-ting between 1891 and 1894. It was introduced into cultivation by 

 seeds (No. 517) collected by me in the autumn of 1900 and again (No. 

 1232) in that of 1901; these were sent to Messrs. Veitch. In 1907, 1 sent a 

 large supply of seeds (No. 509) to the Arnold Arboretum and these were 

 widely distributed. This Rhododendron flowered first in the Coombe 

 Wood nursery in 1910 when the plants were quite small. It has now 

 flowered freely in many gardens and has proved hardy in Great Britain. 



Among the many plants that have flowered slight variation in the 

 shape of the leaf-base, in degree of pubescence on the midrib, in the color 

 of flowers and in the degree of spotting within the corolla-tube have been 

 observed. Such individual differences must be expected when a species 

 is raised in large quantities from seeds. For garden purposes it is conveni- 

 ent to distinguish such forms but it is well to remember that they have 

 horticultural rather than botanical significance. In establishing this species 

 Franchet did not mention the color of the flowers, that figured in the 

 Botanical Magazine without a blotch in the corolla-tube may serve as the 

 type though, as a matter of fact, in a wild state this is less common than 

 the form with a wine-colored blotch which has been distinguished as: 



Rhododendron sutchuenense var. Geraldii Hutchinson in Gard. Chron. 



ser. 3, lxvii. 128 (1920). 



The R. praevernum Hutchinson belongs here though its author would 



have us regard it as a distinct species on account of its glabrous midrib, 

 narrow leaf -base and flowers of a slightly different color. These differences 

 are in themselves trivial and, moreover, inconstant. 



According to Millais (Rhodod. 250) this species has been crossed with 

 several Garden Rhododendrons at Caerhays Castle. No doubt this has 

 been done in many other gardens, and there is a hybrid of this species 

 with Rhododendron "Cornubia" named: — 



Rhododendron cornsutch Magor in Rhod. Soc. Not. n. 120 (1922). 



Rhododendron maculiferum Franchet in Jour, de Bot. ix. 393 

 (1895).— Hemsley & Wilson in Kew Bull. Misc. Inform. 1910, 107. 

 Rehder & Wilson in Sargent, PI. Wilson, i. 531 (1913).— Millais, Rhodod 

 205, fig. facing p. 24 (1917). 



