46 JOURNAL OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM [vol. iv. 



Rhododendron parvifolium f. alpina Glehn in Act. Hort. Petrop. iv. 66 (1876). 



Rhododendron parvifolium f. elata Glehn 1. c. 



Rhododendron confer iissimum Nakai, Veget. Mt. Waigalbon, 36 (1916), 



name only; in Tokyo Bot. Mag. xxxi. 239 (1917); Fl. Sylv. Kor. pt. 



vm. 32, t. 8 (1919). 



Shrub 0.1-1.5 m. tall, branches twiggy, densely clothed with rusty- 

 brown lepidote scales, winterbuds with lepidote, ciliolate bud-scales. 

 Leaves persistent, scattered, petiolate, lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 

 0.5-2 cm. long, 0.3-1 cm. wide, acute or obtuse and mucronate at apex, 

 narrowed at base to the winged petiole, dark green and lepidote above, 

 densely clothed with pale- to rust-colored lepidote glands below. Flowers 

 rosy purple, clustered frpm 2 to 5 together at end of shoots, 1.5-2 cm. 

 diam. subtended by persistent bud-scales; pedicels 4-8 mm. long, lepidote, 

 calyx saucer-shape, 5-lobed, lobes oval, 0.5-1.5 mm. long, densely lepidote, 

 often ciliate, occasionally colored; corolla wide-campanulate, deeply 5- 

 lobed, the lobes spreading, lanceolate-ovate; stamens 10 (sometimes 7-10), 

 exserted, shorter than corolla-lobes, filaments villose near base; pistil 

 overtopping stamens, ovary ovoid, furrowed, densely lepidote, style rich 

 purple, stigma capitate. Fruit ovoid to oblong-ovoid, 4-6 mm. long, 

 densely lepidote; seeds wingless, obovoid, yellow-brown. 



Habitat. Northeastern Asia, eastern Siberia from about 100° E. long, through 

 the Baikal region eastward to Kamtschatka and Saghalien and south to the 

 higher mountains of north Korea. 



This species is widely spread in the colder parts of northeastern Asia 

 but does not reach Japan. At the southern limits of the range it is con- 

 fined to the upper slopes of the higher mountains of Korea but in the north 

 it descends to sea-level on moors and in Sphagnum swamps. When grow- 

 ing freely it is erect and of rather sparse habit but on windswept moun- 

 tain-slopes it is reduced to a few inches in height and forms broad 

 mats. On such plants Nakai founded his R. confetti ssimum,. Of this I 

 gathered seeds on Mt. Setsurei, northern Korea, at 7000 ft. and plants 

 raised from them grew into the ordinary tall, sparsely branched, typical 

 form. This dw r arf plant is purely a response to ecological conditions and 

 cannot be main- tained as a distinct form. From western China certain 

 species of the section Lepipherum have been erroneously referred to 



ifol 



tf« 



Mountai 



ponicum Wahlenb. It has not taken kindly to cultivation in England or 

 America thriving better in Germany and Russia. I have not been able to 

 discover when it was first introduced into cultivation but Kegel's fine plate 

 in the Gartenflora (xxvi) 163, t. 904 (1877) is the earliest figure of a cul- 

 tivated plant I have seen. At Edinburgh this plant thrives in the rockery 

 and it is said to grow well in the Cambridge Botanic Garden. In the 

 Arnold Arboretum we have not succeeded in properly establishing it 

 though it is a plant that ought to succeed here. 



