50 JOURNAL OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM [vol. iv. 



Rhododendron dauricum var. mucronulatum Maximowicz in M£m 

 Acad. Sci. St. P6tersb. s6r. 7, xvi. no. 9, 44 (Rliod. As. Or. (1870). 

 Hemsley in Jour. Linn. Soc. xxvi. 22 (1889). — Matsumura Ind. PL Jap. 

 ii.pt. 2, 459 (1912). 



Rhododendron mucronulatum Turczaninow in Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. x. no. 

 7, 155 (1837); in Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xxi. pt, 2, 502 (Fl. Baical. Dahur.) 

 (1848).— DeCandolle, Prodr. vn. 727 (1839).— Sargent in Gard. & For. 

 ix. 64, fig. 7 (1896).— St. Paul in Mitteil. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. VII. 1, t. 

 (1898).— Schneider, 111. Handb. Laubholzk. n. 472, figs. 314 c-d, 316 

 a-b (1909).— Hemsley in Bot. Mag. cxxxvi. t. 8304 (1910) .— Nakai in 

 Jour. Coll. Sci. Tokyo, xxxi. 75 (Fl. Kor. n.) (1911); Fl. Sylv. Kor. pt. 

 viii. 35, t. 10 (1919).— Bean, Trees & Shrubs Brit. Isl. II. 353 (1914). — 

 Rehder in Bailey, Stand. Cycl. Hort. v. 2939, fig. 3382 (1916). 



Rhododendron dauricum Maximowicz in M6m. Acad. Sci. Sav. Etr. St. 

 P6tersb. ix. 189 (Prim. Fl. Amur.) (1859), in part. 



Rhododendron Taquetii L6veill6 in Fedde, Rep. Nov. Spec. XII. 101 (1913). 



Rhododendron mucronulatum var. Taquetii Nakai, Rep. Veget. Quelpaert, 

 71 (1914), name only. 



This variety may be regarded as the southeastern form of the type 

 being common from the Amur region southward. It occurs in Hokkaido 

 where it is rare and finds the western limits of its range in the Chinese 

 province of Chihli. 



It is well-distinguished by its larger, less coriaceous leaves which are 

 sometimes 7 cm. long and 4 cm. wide and usually pale on the underside, with 

 crenate-serrate margins. The flowers are larger being often 4 cm. across, 

 of a more pleasing shade of color and sometimes the lobes are not so deeply 

 cleft and in consequence the flower is less flattened and more bell-shaped. 

 The fruit, too, is usually stouter and about 1.5 cm. long. The flowers 



open in the Arnold Arboretum in April and early May and are remarkably 

 resistant to frost. The variety is in many ways a superior garden plant to 

 the type, but unfortunately, as Maximowicz points out, there are inter- 

 mediate forms and I do not see how it can be maintained as a species. It 

 is especially abundant in Korea from the mountains of the extreme north 

 to Quelpaert. It is a common undergrowth in the open Larch-forests on 

 the volcanic soils of north Korea where it is often 10 ft. tall. Its leaves are 

 pleasantly fragrant when crushed or dried like those of the type and the 

 autumn tints are similar. In Korea it is one of the first shrubs to open its 

 flowers in the Spring and being everywhere abundant — in open rocky 



country, mountain slopes, cliffs and woodlands — is a prominent feature of 

 the vegetation. 



This useful plant was discovered on Po-hua-shan, a mountain west of 

 Peking, by Dr. P. Y. Kirilow, about 1835 and introduced into cultivation 

 by Dr. Bretschneider who sent seeds from the type locality to the Arnold 

 Arboretum in 1882. It flowered for the first time in the spring of 1888, 

 in the garden of Professor Sargent at Home Lea, Brookline. Each season 

 since it has never failed to cover itself with flowers in the spring and a 

 cheerful mass of tinted leaves in the autumn. The leaves are entirely 

 deciduous; and it is a first-rate garden plant. 



