PREFACE. 7 
It does not appear on record by whom the Zree Rhododendron was first introduced into Europe, probably by 
Dr. Wallich, about the year 1827. We know that to that distinguished botanist we owe the discovery, and the possession 
of most of them in our gardens, of other noble Indian species, such as 2. formosum, R. barbatum, R. nobile, R. cam- 
af, 
y R. ci with their many varieties, the limits of which are not clearly defined; and the facility these 
kinds afford for hybridizing with 2. ardoreum, thereby rendering the produce more hardy, has occasioned the original type 
of this latter species to be almost lost to our gardens. 
R. Nilagiricum (Bot. Mag. t. 4381) was introduced to our gardens by Messrs. Lucombe, Pince, and Co., of the Exeter 
Nursery, a species assuredly quite, and permanently, distinct from 2. arboreum, though published and figured under 
that name in Dr. Wight’s Jcones. Dr. Wallich, about the same period, detected another distinct, but not less interesting, 
group of species, in Northern India, more allied to 2. ferrugineum and R. hirsutum; namely R. setosum, R. lepidotum, 
and 2. Anthopogon. 
Drs. Horsfield, Blume, and Jack made known some species from the mountains of Java: they were R. Javanicum 
(a most lovely shrub, introduced to our gardens by Messrs. Veitch and Sons of Exeter, through their collector, Mr. W. Lobb, 
see Bot. Mag. t. 4336), 2. album, R. retusum, R. tubiforum, R. Malayanum, and R. Celebicum. Blume, we believe, first 
noticed a species as being epiphytal, in Java (“supra arbores”), his 2. (Vireya) album. Mr. William Lobb informs me 
that several kinds are there epiphytal; and Mr. Low, who speaks of the fine Rhododendrons existing in Borneo, 
particularizes one which inhabits invariably the trunks of trees, and which he had the good fortune to send to 
England alive, though we fear it has not been preserved in our collections. 
What may be the number of species, or what the kinds, detected by Mr. Griffith during his travels in Bootan, we 
do not learn from the volume of his Posthumous Papers recently published at Calcutta by Mr. M‘Clelland ; nor am T aware 
whether Dr. Wight has published the whole of them in the paper of that gentleman, in the Calcutta Journal of Natural 
History, vol. viii., on certain Rhododendrons of Mr. Griffith. In Dr. Wight’s Icones he figures and describes only two, 
RL. grande and R. Grifithianum ; both very distinct from any found by Dr. Hooker in the adjacent territory of Sikkim. 
And in proof of the prevalence of the genus in Bootan, it may be observed that Mr. Griffith, in his Journal, when speaking 
of one single excursion (to Doonglala Peak, 12,478 feet of elevation), enumerates no less than eight distinct species ; viz. :— 
* Floribus in racemis umbelliformibus. 
= 
. R. arboreum ; arboreum, foliis oblongo-obovatis subtus argenteis. 
2. R. ferrugineum ; arboreum, foliis obovatis supra rugosis subtus ferrugincis. 
3. &.—— ; fruticosum, foliis oblongis subtus ferrugineo-lepidotis. 
4. R. ellipticum ; fruticosum, foliis ellipticis. 
5. R.——— ; fruticosum, foliis ellipticis basi cordatis subtus glaucis reticulatis. 
6. &. —— ; fruticosum, foliis ] latis oblongis sub-obovatis subtus punctatis. 
7. R. undulatum ; {ruticosum, foliis clongato-lanceolatis undulatis subtus reticulatis. 
** Floribus solitaris. 
eo 
ap 
. microphyllum ; fruticosum totum ferruginco-lepidotum, foliis lanceolatis parvis. 
B2 
