98 CLIMATE AND VKGETATION OF 



main branches as tliick as the human tliigh, spreading horizon- 

 tally 20 or 30 feet evei-y way, interwoven with the adjacent 

 plants and shrubs. Bark smooth, pale Hesh-coloured, flaking off 

 in broad membranous patches. Wood white, very close-grained, 

 soft yet tough, neither w^arping nor splitting, but, in consequence 

 of the great compression of the larger branches, rarely affording 

 a sample a foot square. Leaves terminal on the end branches, 

 ample, spreading, 12 to 18 inches in length, of a singularly thick 

 coriaceous texture, glabrous and bright glossy green above ; 

 beneath, all except the thickened costa, clothed with a pale 

 silvery white, rarely ferruginous, closely appressed wool, but 

 which is easily rubbed off by the finger, and is often itself eva- 

 nescent. Heads 4 to 6 inches in diameter, of several delicate, 

 pale purple or rose-coloured flowers. Flower-stalks short, viscid, 

 often downy. Corolla large, the tube IJ inch long, broadly 

 campanulate, the base depressed at the insertion upon the flower- 

 stalk, the margin of the depression lobed, limb spreading, 2 to 

 2^ inclies across, 8-lobed. This, and its associate the Abies 

 Wehbicma, I have always regarded as characteristic plants of 

 10,000 to 12,000 feet in all the interior parts of Sikkim. 

 7?. Hodgsoni, in this respect, ranks with R. arhareum and 

 M. Campbellice, being found in a loftier zone of Rhododendrons, 

 succeeded by the arctic one of R. anthopogon, R. setosum, 

 R. elcEcignoides, and finally, far above the ordinary limit of 

 pheenogamic vegetation, by R. nivale, which is found at an 

 elevation of 18,000 feet. Within the limits assigned to the 

 present species, the traveller's attention is continually arrested 

 by its magnificent and brilliant deep green foliage, as large as 

 that of R. Falconeri. In summer the leaves spread all around 

 the plant ; in winter they are rolled up, shrivelled, and pendulous 

 from the tips of the branches. It is found alike at the bottom of 

 the valleys, on the rocky spurs or slopes of the hills, in open 

 places, or in the gloomy pine-groves, often forming an impene- 

 trable thicket, not merely of twigs and foliage, but of thickset 

 limbs and stout trunks, only to be severed with difficulty, on 

 account of the toughness of the wood. As it is easily worked, 

 and Jiot apt to split, it is admirably adapted for use in the 

 parched and arid climate of Tibet ; and the Bhoteas make from 

 it cups, spoons, and ladles, and the saddle, by means of which 

 loads are slung upon the " yak." The leaves are employed as 

 platters, and serve for lining the baskets which contain the 

 mashed pulp of Ariscana root (a kind of Colocass) ; and the 

 customary present of butter or curd is always enclosed in this 

 glossy foliage. 



