EAST NEPAL AND THE SIKKIM HIMALAYA MOUNTAIXS. 97 



the very point where it meets the stem ; upper surface a bright 

 green, lower paler. Flower-stalks as long as the leaves, slender. 

 Flowers nodding, white, nearly half an inch across, of the same 

 form as those of R. setosum and R. lepidotum, having a short, 

 swelling, almost spherical tube, and spreading or recurved round 

 lobes. Stamens projecting far beyond the tube. Seed-vessels 

 curved, unlike those of any other species, being slender and 

 membranous, pale-brown, an inch long, scarcely ^ in diameter, 

 valves linear, a little scaly on the back. 



II. Species of the Middle or Alpine Zone, answering to the 

 Alpine region of Southern and the Subalpine of Middle and 

 Northern Europe, to the climates of the Scotch Fir, &c. 

 (10,000 to 14,000 feet). 



12. R. Falconeri. — Distribution and range: East Nepal 

 and Sikkim — 9000 to 12,000 feet — in moist forests. 



A tree 30 feet in height ; 2 or 3 trunks springing from the 

 same point, often 2 feet in diameter. Bark pale and smooth ; 

 branches few, spreading, leafy at the tops ; young leaves clothed 

 with velvety down, and when in bud concealed by downy gluti- 

 nous scales, of which the outer are subulate, the inner ovate. 

 The perfect leaves are very coriaceous, from 8 to 20 inches long, 

 and 5 to 12 inches wide, the upper side glossy green, but fading 

 into yellow at the margins, which are quite plane (not recurved) 

 beneath ; clothed with a short, dense, pale, ferruginous down, 

 except on the mid-rib and reticulated veins. Leaf- stalks long 

 and very thick, plane and glabrous above, clothed beneath mth 

 dark rusty down. Heads small, composed of numerous white, 

 densely placed flowers. This is a most striking and distinct 

 species, of which the foliage resembles the ferruginous-leaved 

 Magnolia grandiflora. The dense many-flowered head, the 

 multiplication of the lobes of the corolla, and of the stamens and 

 fruit-cells, and the exserted style, bring it very near R. grande 

 (Wight's Ic. PL, vol. iv., t. 1202), a Bhotan species found by 

 Mr. Griffith ; but the foliage is totally different. 



The flowers and leaves of this species usually attain a much 

 larger size than those represented in the " Sikkim Rhododen- 

 drons." 



13. R. Hodgsoni. — Distribution and range : East 

 Nepal, Bhotan, and Sikkim— 10,000 to 12,000 feet — 

 in humid forests. 



A small tree, from 12 to 20 feet, branching from the base, 



VOL. VII. H 



