82 A NOTICE OF SOME SPECIES OF 



Avith in the kindred Cranberries ( Vaccmiacea) of Soutli Ame- 

 rica, among which several Thihaudias may be named ; tlie epi- 

 phytal cliaracter has indeed been observed among plants still more 

 nearly allied to Rhododendron, as in Anthopterus racemosus and 

 a species of Sphyrospermum, both which grow upon trees in the 

 Peruvian Andes. 



Tlie four species now described belong to a supposed genus 

 called Vireya by Blume, and distinguished from Rhododendron 

 by tlie seeds being extended at each end into a slender tail-like 

 process. But this circumstance, the only one that is at all pecu- 

 liar to the Malay Rhododendrons, disappears in Vireya retusa-, 

 whose seeds are shown by Dr. llorsfield's figure of that plant to 

 be in no respect different from those o^ Rhododendron arhoreum. 

 In the latter species the seeds are furnished with short thick hairs 

 at each end ; in Rhododendron campanidatum tiiey are reduced 

 to mere tubercles ; in Azalea indica they w holly disappear ; 

 while in Azalea pontica they occur in the form of thick processes 

 connected with a broad wing which surrounds the seed either 

 wholly or in part. Hence we are led to infer that such circum- 

 stances are of no generic value, and therefore botanists have 

 universally rejected the genus Vireya. 



I,-^-Rhododendron Brookeanum. Lota. 



Sp. Char. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute, perfectly smooth, 

 nearly sessile, without any trace of dotting or marking on the 

 under side. Peduncles smooth. Flowers in loose umbels. 

 Calyx obsolete. Corolla between funnel-shaped and campanu- 

 late, 5-lobed ; the lobes retuse, revolute, nearly as long as the 

 tube. Stamens 10, prominent, with linear converging anthers. 



This noble plant not only grows on trees, but, according to one 

 of Mr. Low's memoranda, is occasionally met with " on moss- 

 covered limestone rocks, flowering from November to July." 

 Another note upon it is the following : — 



" I shall never forget the first discovery of this gorgeous 

 plant ; it was epiphytal upon a tree which was growing in the 

 water of a creek. The head of flowers was very large, arranged 

 loosely, of the richest golden yellow, resplendent when in the 

 sun ; the habit was graceful, the leaves large. The calyx of this 

 and the other Borneo species is so small as to be scarcely per- 

 ceptible. Tlie roots are large and fleshy, not fibrous as those of 

 the terrestrial Rhododendrons. It is the least common of all 

 the genus in the island, and has many varieties, Avhich differ in 

 liaving larger flowers and leaves : the former of a more or less 

 red colour. Very high and lai'ge trees in damp forests are its 

 favourite haunts." 



