94 CLIMATE AND VKGETATION OF 



surface lii^ht full green ; the under paler, slightly glaucescent. 

 Flowers the largest of the genus, variable in size, terminal, 3 to 

 5 together, inodorous. Peduncles rather slender, longer than the 

 petioles, red or green. The calyx represents a shallow, concave, 

 irregular, subrhomboid-shaped platter, ]! inch in its greatest 

 diameter ; the back marked with sliglitly elevated, radiating 

 lines, glossy, as if varnished. Corolla white, tinged with pink, 

 veiny, of a firm, rather fieshy texture : tube short for the size of 

 the flower, yellowish and rose-colour towards the base, the mouth 

 very wide, lobes exceedingly large and spreading. I have 

 measured some only 3 inches across, but others 5 and 5:^ inches 

 in diameter! —I have found but few plants of this superb species, 

 and in these the inflorescence varied much in size. The speci- 

 mens from which the drawing in Sikkim Rhod. (under the name 

 of R. Aucklandii, PI. XI.) was made were from a bush covered 

 with blossoms, growing in a rather dry, sunny exposure, above 

 the villa-^e of Choongtam. The same species also grows on the 

 skirts of the pine-forests {Abies Briinoniana) above Lamleng, 

 and it is there conspicuous for the abundance rather than for the 

 large size of its blossoms. 



When I described this plant I was not aware of its being the 

 R. Griffithii of Dr. Wight's Icones Plant. Ind. Or., the draw- 

 ing of which seems to have been prepared from very bad ma- 

 terials. The great size of the corollas figured in the " Sikkim 

 Rhododendrons " may be due to tlie individual being sterile, for 

 I found the anthers to contain little or no pollen. 



7. R. Edyeworthii. — Distribution and range: Sikkim — 

 7000 to 9000 feet — in forests of the dampest regions. 



Leaves 2 to 4 inches long. Corolla white, often tinged with 

 blush or pale yellow : tlie tube rather short, widening much at 

 the mouth, slightly curved, the limb unusually large, more than 

 4 inches across, spreading, of 5 nearly equal, rounded, slightly 

 emarginate lobes, crisped at the margin, delicately veined on the 

 surface. — A truly superb species, from the size of the flowers and 

 their roseate tinge on a white ground, also from the varietj^ of 

 rich colour in the leaves, bracteas, stipules, calyx, &c., while the 

 very wrinkled surface of the leaf adds much to its beauty. In 

 its floccose character and foliaceous calyx it resembles R. pendu- 

 lum; but in the size and shape of the flowers it approaches R. 

 DalhousicE, next to which I would place it. The majority of 

 my specimens were obtained from the land-shoots or slips in the 

 rocky ravines, wliich bring down in their course those pines on 

 the limbs of wliich this species delights to grow. 



