96 clijMate and vkgetation of 



Var. triftorum forms a slirub 4 to 6 feet liigli, with erect 

 and rather twiggy branches. Leaves frequently pendulous, on 

 rather short, slender petioles (4 of an inch long), ovato-lanceo- 

 late, approaching to oblong or elliptical, 2 or 3 inches long, the 

 margin a little recurved, substance rather thin, upper surface 

 smootli and shining, under quite glabroiss and glaucous, but so 

 beset with ferruginous scales as to partake of that colour. 

 Peduncles generally 3 together, terminal, ^ to f of an inch long, 

 slender, erect. Corolla greenisii -yellow, in shape much resem- 

 bling that of the common garden Azaleas, having a somewhat 

 obconical tube very open at tiie mouth, and a limb of 5 spreading 

 oblong entire segments, which are slightly veiny, nearly 2 inches 

 across the lobes. 



'R.virgatum itself has stems and branches 4 feet high, scarcely 

 the thickness of a crow-quill. The leaves are in form and size 

 like those of R. (jlaucum. Flowers solitary, rarely in pairs, and 

 axillary ; the pedicels 2 to 3 lines long, covered with sheathing, 

 deciduous, coriaceous, brown scales, wliich are longer than the 

 pedicel, very rigid in texture, downy on the back. Corolla a 

 pale red-purple, smaller tiian that of Var. triflorum^ but of the 

 same form ; the tube short, narrow, and obconical, tlie segments 

 narrow and spreading. 



11. R. vaccinioides. — Distribution and range: Sihkim 

 ■ — 6000 to 8000 feet — in very moist situations of the 

 outer and inner valleys. 



The flowers of this species were unknown to me when I pub- 

 lished the second Fasciculus of the " Sikkim Rhododendrons," 

 and I consequently placed the species in a wrong section of the 

 genus. An excellent drawing, prepared by my friend the late Mr. 

 Cathcart, represents the flower and fruit ; it will shortly be pub- 

 lished in Sir W. Hooker's Icones Plantarum. In the synoptical 

 account of the species given above I have associated it with R. 

 caynellicpjlorum, &c., with which it further agrees in its fre- 

 quently epiphytical habit. It is not now alive in this country, 

 and, being of no beauty, it may be long before it is so. In the 

 neighbourhood of Darjiling it is very abundant. 



A small, very slender, straggling species, sometimes pendulous 

 from trunks of trees, and then 2 feet long, of a bright green 

 colour, and so like a common Sikkim species of Vaccinium (V. 

 ohovatimi, Wight, Icon., t. 1193) as not to be distinguishable at 

 first sight. Stems no thicker than a dove's quill, rough with 

 tubercles, indicating the former ])osition of scales, which still 

 clothe the branchlets, petioles, and more sparingly the under 

 surface of the foliage. Leaves coriaceous, ^ to an inch long, 

 obovate or even spathulate, the blade narrowed downwards to 



