104 JOURNAL OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM [vol. v 



cm. long, villose when young. Flowers solitary, axillary, from buds 



near 



season's growth 



5-0 



tains 



ground 



clothed with short pilose-glandular hairs, at first sheathed in dry, pubescent 

 bud-scales; calyx membranous, deeply 5-lobed, lobes oblong to broadly 

 ovate, 0.4-0.6 cm. long, 0.2-0.4 cm. wide, sparsely glandular-ciliate; corolla 

 deeply 5-lobed, pink to pale rosy-purple with a few darker colored dots 

 on the posterior part, rotate, 2.5-3.5 cm. wide, lobes wide-spreading, 

 rounded ; stamens 5, filaments flattened, villose in lower half, pistil exserted, 

 overtopping stamens, ovary subglobose, glandular, style slender, glabrous, 

 stigma capitate, lobed. Fruit dark purple-brown, sub-globose, C .. 

 cm. long and broad, glandular, partially enclosed within persistent, mem- 

 branous calyx; seed minute, elongate, wingless. 



This species is not uncommon between elevations of from 4000 to 7000 

 ft. in Hupeh but is not known to grow further west. It is distributed east- 

 ward to the shores of the Yellow Sea being found plentifully on the raoun- 



" Kiangsu, Chekiang and Fokien provinces. It was originally known 

 from the Chusan Islands but most probably only cultivated in the temple 



' : of those sacred islands. On the mountains around Kuling it is 

 particularly abundant round about 4000 ft. altitude. This Rhododendron 

 also grows in Hongkong so Hupeh represents the northern as well as the 

 western limits of its distribution. 



It is a much branched, twiggy shrub seldom exceeding 8 ft. in height 

 with rigid, ascending branches. The leaves are crowded at the ends of 

 the branchlets and when young are a lovely violet-purple color. The 

 flowers are flat of an undecided but pleasing shade of pink to pale rose- 

 purple and open in May. In Hupeh it is partial to cliffs and rocky places 

 where it grows mixed with other shrubs but is sheltered from strong winds. 



This species was discovered on the Chusan Islands in the autumn of 

 1843 by Robert Fortune who sent seeds to the Horticultural Society 

 of London the same year. Subsequently he found it wild on the moun- 

 tains of the Chekiang province. Fortune tells of two forms, one with 

 white and another with pink flowers. A white form is unknown to me in 

 a living state. 



Rhododendron ovatum was first found in Hupeh by A. Henry; in 1900 

 I sent seeds (No. 938) from the district of Changyang to Messrs. Veitch 

 and in 1907 to the Arnold Arboretum from the same locality. Plants 

 raised from my first consignment of seeds are thriving in Cornwall but 

 have not proved very hardy in less favorable climates. 



Sect. 2. CHONIASTRUM Pranch. 



Rhododendron sect. Choniastrum Franchet in J 



(1898), nomen. 



116.— Rehder & Wilson in Sargent, PI. Wilson 

 Subgen. Azalea. 



Misc. Inform. 1910, 



