245 



Bush 1-2 metres high ; branches twiggy, grey or reddish, 

 shining. Leaves clustered, deciduous, membranous, ovate, acute, 

 excluding petioles 6-7 cm. long, 2'5-3'5 cm. broad, reticulate, base 

 cuneate, glabrescent, clothed with yellowish, silky hairs when 

 young ; midrib and primary veins prominent, sparsely pubescent ; 

 petioles 4-8 mm. long, dark coloured, glabrescent. Buds ovoid ; 

 scales broadly ovate or orbicular, apiculate, ciliate, glabrescent 

 without, pubescent within. Flowers usually in pairs, rarely 

 solitary, pale purple, 4-5 cm. across ; pedicels, enclosed by bud- 

 scales, erect, stout, \5-l cm. long, setulose. Calyx annular, densely 

 setose. Corolla deeply 5-lobed, glabrous ; tube narrowly funnel- 

 shaped, 5-10 mm. long ; lobes twice the length of the tube, 

 spreading, elliptic, rounded or obtuse. Stamens 10, shortly 

 exserted ; filaments 2-2*5 cm. long, glabrous, curved in upper 

 half. Pistil much exceeding stamens ; ovary 4-5 mm. long, 

 densely setose ; style 3-3*5 cm. long, curved upwards, glabrous. 

 Fruit about 1*5 cm. long, 6 mm. broad, setose. — R. Farrerae, 

 var. Weyrichii, Diels, in Engl. Jahrb. vol. xxix., p. 513. 



E. H. W. 



: Western Hupeh, at 200-600 metres. Wilson. 



Central China 



Henry, 5274, 5947 ; Patunsr, A. Hen 



Nanto and mountains to the northward, A. Henry, 3829 ; 

 Kiukiang, Kiangsi, Maries. 



Dr. Henry's dried specimens, and some others, were doubtfully 

 referred by me (Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. xxvi., p. 32) to R. 

 Weyrichii, Maxim. 



Raised at Kew from seeds sent home by Dr. Henry in 1886, 

 and flowered in the Temperate House in April, 1907. 



Dr. L. Diels, in the place cited above, reduces R. Weyrichii, 

 Maxim., R. leucotrichum, Franch., the specimens here referred to 

 R. Mariesii, Hemsl. and E. H. Wils., and some others, to R. 

 Farrerae, Tate. This treatment leads me to suspect that he may 

 not have had specimens of genuine R. Farrerae before him, 

 because this, in my opinion, is one of the most distinct and least 

 variable of the species of the section Azalea ; and Maximowicz, in 

 contrasting his R. Weyrichii, a Japanese species, with the Hong- 

 kong R. Farrerae says :— "A praecedente optime differt," R. Far- 

 rerae, Tate (Sweet's Brit. Fl. Gard. 1831, series 2. t. 95), is a low, 

 very densely branched bush with thick, stiff leaves strongly 

 reticulated on the under surface, with usually solitary flowers 

 and more hairy flower-buds. 



The investigation of this group of species has led to the 



discovery of some facts in the history of R. Farrerae that seem 



worth recording. It is a native of the mountains of Hongkong 

 and the neighbouring part of the mainland, as stated in the 



Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. xxvi., p. 23. Among the 



collectors of the species is one named Tate, who collected both on 

 the mainland and in the island, in 1862-3. This was G. R. Tate, 

 M.D., an army surgeon, who was stationed at Hongkong during 

 the years named. The Tate to whom Sweet attributes the author- 

 ship of the name Farrerae was not, however, Dr. Tate, but a 

 nurseryman in Lowndes Street, as we learn from Loudon's 



