50 THE CILIATED RHODODENDRON. 
'This is, no doubt, one of the most cultivable of the Indian alpine species, those who have had 
the worst success with others having managed to keep it in health. It has a peculiarly bright 
green aspect, breaks its buds very early if in a greenhouse, and seems as little impatient of confine- 
ment as of external cold when exposed. It does not appear to grow above a foot or two high, and 
begins to blossom when not more than six inches tall. The flowers themselves are delicate and 
beautiful, but the great value of the plant may be expected to consist in its giving dwarfness 
to mules with the tall and hardy Rhododendrons, such as ponticum, catawbiense, and maximum. 
Dr. Hooker, in his very able and instructive paper on the climate of the Sikkim Himalaya, in the 
Journal of the Horticultural Society, speaks thus of the plant before us :— 
“R. eiliatum.—Distribution and range: Sikkim—9000 to 10,000 feet—in rocky valleys of the 
interior. 
“This forms a small very rigid shrub, growing in clumps 2 feet high, generally in moist rocky 
places. Odour faintly resinous and pleasant. Corolla 14 inch long, nearly as much across at the 
mouth; tube rather contracted below, limb 5-lobed, colour pale reddish-purple ; upper lobe obscurely 
spotted. Allied to R. darbatum, but widely different in stature, habit, and the scattered scales 
on the under surface of the leaves. I have not observed it in other valleys than those flanked by 
snowy mountains, where it is common, scenting the air in warm weather. The scales (as in its 
congeners) are orbicular, sessile, attached at the centre, formed of 3 concentric series of cells 
surrounding a central one, in which a resinous fragrant oil is secreted.” 
