102 CLIMATE AND VEGETATION OF 



21. ^, glaucum. — Distribution and range: Sikkim and 

 Bhotan, in moist rocky places. 10,000 to 12,000 feet. 



This constitutes a small shrub of the average height of 2 feet. 

 Branches scarcely so thick as a goosequill, yellowish-brown, 

 often glaucous-white, the younger ones scaly. Leaves rather 

 crowded at the extremities of the brandies, 1 to 3 inches long, 

 usually 1 to I2 inch broad, on short stalks, upper side deep 

 green, when old naked above, below remarkably glaucous, almost 

 Avhite, and quite dotted with copious little scales, which in the 

 yonng state cover the whole leaf, and at all times abound on 

 the bracteas, bud, flower-stalks, and especially on the sepals. 

 Flower-stalks 7 to 8, almost in an umbel at the ends of the 

 branches, erect, an inch or more long, rather slender. Flowers 

 erect or inclined, pale pinkish-purple. Corolla ratlier more than 

 an inch long, and about as broad in tlie widest part, tube cam- 

 jianulate, limb moderately spreading, of 5 nearly equal rounded 

 notched lobes. The remarkable glaucous colour of the under- 

 side of the leaves, and the great development of the calyx, readily 

 distinguish this species. In foliage it closely resembles 11. vir- 

 gatum, but the inflorescence and calyx areAvidely dififerent. Tlie 

 Avliole plant has a powerful resinous smell, due to exceedingly 

 small globules of a pale yellow colour which exude from beneath 

 the little scales on the underside of the leaves. These scales are 

 very curious ; the majority are smaller, pale-coloured, exliibiting 

 several concentric circles of small, nearly uniform cells ; the 

 larger are bristly at the margin, and consist of a centre or disc of 

 small cells surrounded by a limb or margin of I'adiating elongated 

 ones. 



22. R. pumilum. — Distribution and range : Sihkim. — 

 Alpine slopes. 12,000 to 14,000 feet. 



The smallest of all the Sikkim Rhododendrons. Its slender 

 woody stem roots among moss, Andromeda fastigiala, &c., 

 ascends obliquely, and bears a few spreading branches, 3 to 4 

 inches in length, rising above the surrounding vegetation. Leaves, 

 chiefly from the upper ends of the branches, ^ to | of an inch 

 long, bright bluish-green above, below scaly, as is the short stalk, 

 aud glaucous. Flower-stalks moderately slender, erect, I to 3 

 on the ends of the branches, and rising 1 J inch above the base of 

 the superior leaves, firm and woody, much elongated, and 

 straight to the very top when in fruit. Flowers inclined or almost 

 drooping. Corolla ^ to f of an inch long, rose-colour, campa- 

 nulate, very delicate, externally downy, and obscurely glandular ; 

 the tube rather broad, the limb of 5 nearly equal, moderately 

 spreading, roundish entire lobes. An extremely elegant species, 



