88 A NOTICE OF SOME SPECIES OF 



IV". — HlIODODENDRON LONGIFLORUM. 



Sp. Char. Leaves verticillate, perfectly smooth, shining, obo- 

 vate, convex, with a revolute edge, shortly stalked, with 

 copious green points on both, especially the under sides. Pe- 

 duncles short, erect, downy. Calyx obsolete. Corolla 3 or 

 4 times as long as the peduncles, with a long curved tube, 

 and an erect short bluntly 5-lobed equal limb, which even- 

 tually falls back. Stamens as long as the corolla. Anthers 

 short. 



" This remarkable plant," Mr. Low writes, " is found on high 

 trees in low and damp jungles in the vicinity of Sarawak ; it 

 grows about 8 feet high, and when covered with its crimson tube- 

 shaped blossoms is exceedingly beautiful. It flowers when very 

 small, but does not grow very freely until after it has attained 

 considerable size. Its seeds are tailed, and in general habit it 

 approaches the yellow and verticillate species (7?. verticil- 

 latinn)." 



Although smaller in every part than the species previously 

 described, this is hardly inferior in beauty, on account of the in- 

 tense crimson colour of its long tubular blossoms. The latter 

 are very distinctly curved, full 2 inches long, and grow in 

 close heads, each consisting of from 9 to 10 flowers. The leaves 

 are about 1^ inch broad, and 3^ inches long. 



Mr. Low calls this species Rhododendron tubijlorum, a name 

 I am obliged to alter, because it is not the same as the Vireya 

 (or Rhododendron^ tubijlora of Blume. 



It has been suggested to me that these fine plants will not prove 

 cultivable, because they are epiphytes. I cannot concur in this 

 opinion. The mode of managing epiphytes is now so well un- 

 derstood, in respect to Orchids and Bromelworts, that even if it 

 should be necessary to treat the Malay Rhododendrons in the 

 same manner, no serious difficulty can be apprehended. Blume 

 tells us that the Java species are mostly " parasitical on trees," 

 that is to say epiphytes ; and yet the Rhododendron javanicum is 

 as manageable as Rhododendron arhoreum. 



The probability however is, that they do not require to be 

 treated as epiphytes, and that, like orchids, they will grow better 

 if committed judiciously to the earth. It was a sagacious re- 

 mark of the late Dean of Manchester, that we are wrong in sup- 

 posing plants always to prefer the places in which they are found 

 naturally. He believed that plants often occupy particular sta- 

 tions, and exhibit particular habits, on account of the necessity 

 of their position, and because in more favourable places they 



