19231 WILSON, THE RHODODENDRONS OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA 55 



Habitat. Japan, northern Hondo and Hokkaido; Kuriles, Saghalien, Kam- 

 tschatka, Aleutian Islands to Alaska and southward to Banks Island, British 

 Columbia. 



This pretty plant of boreal regions strongly suggests a Cistus and is 

 very unlike an ordinary Rhododendron. It is widely distributed through 

 regions just south of the arctic circle and has the distinction of being the 

 only species of Rhododendron common to Asia and North America. 

 Millais says it is also abundant in west Greenland, but surely he is mis- 

 taken. I can find no other record of this plant growing in Greenland and 

 conjecture that Millais has confused it with R.lapponicum Wahlenb. which 

 is a common plant there. In Asia it has the southern limits of its distribution 

 on the mountain peaks of northern Hondo where, however, it is very rare. 

 It is partial to sphagnum bogs and marshy places and on the mountains 

 is found growing beneath taller shrubs in regions where the annual pre- 

 cipitation is considerable and uniform. 



According to Loudon it was introduced into English gardens in 1802 

 (Bean says 1799) but it has proved a difficult subject to cultivate. It is 

 quite hardy in Massachusetts and does well in the Proctor Arboretum, 



Topsfield. 



There is said to be a white-flowered variety 



Rhododendron kamtschaticum var. albiflorum Koidzumi in Tokyo Bot. 

 Mag. xxxi. 34 (1917). 



The author gives Mt. Nutakkamshipe in Hokkaido as the locality for 



this albino. 



Rhododendron Redowskianum Maximowicz in M6m. Acad. Sci. Sav. 



Etr. St. Petersb. ix. 189 (Prim. Fl. Amur.) (1859); in M6m. Acad. Sci. 

 St. Petersb. ser. 7, xvi. no. 9, 48, t. 2, figs. 21-25 (Rhod. As. Or.) (1870). 

 Fr. Schmidt in Mem. Acad. Sci. St. Petersb. ser. 7, XII. no. 2, 55 (Reis. im 

 Amur-1.) (1868).— Komarov in Act. Hort. Petrop. xxv. 208 (Fl. Mandsh. 

 in.) (1907).— Schneider, 111. Hand. Laubholzk. n. 508, fig. 333 f-h (1909). 

 Millais, Rhodod. 234 (1917).— Nakai, Fl. Sylv. Kor. pt. vm. 38, t. 12 

 (1919). 



Rhododendron Chamaecistus Chamisso & Schlechtendal in Linnaea, I. 513 

 (1826), not Linnaeus.— Ledebour, Fl. Ross. II. 921 (1846). 



A much-branched shrub, 5-15 cm. high, branches spreading on the ground, 

 angular, clothed with^adpressed leaf-bases, pubescent between pulvini. 

 Leaves deciduous, clustered, membraneous, sessile, oblanceolate to lance- 

 olate, 5-10 mm. long, 3-5 mm. wide, acute or rounded at apex, narro w 

 at base, crenate-serrate, glandularly ciliate, veins slightly impressed above, 

 prominent below. Flowers 1-3, rose-purple, about 2.5 cm. across; pe- 

 duncle and pedicel pubescent and glandular, pedicels 8-12 mm. long; 

 bracts leaf-like; calyx foliaceous, deeply 5-cleft, persistent, lobes oblong- 

 lanceolate, 5-6 mm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, acute, pubescent, glandularly 



