10 THE RHODODENDRONS 
calyx, it is one of the most perfect plants of the whole, and in its characters of flower and fruit is far more closely 
allied to the typical or scarlet-flowered group, than is the section to which the following belongs. 
IL. Rhododendron Falconeri, a white-flowered species, is eminently characteristic of the genus in habit, place of growth, 
and locality, never occurring below 10,000 fect. On the other hand it is peculiar in its ten-lobed corolla, numerous 
stamens, and many-celled ovary, superb foliage and many-flowered capitula. This multiplication of parts and development 
of foliage and trunk give it a striking appearance; but there is an almost total absence of calyx, an organ sufficiently 
evident in other species. It is allied to a species discovered by the lamented Griffith in Bootan, the 2. grande, Wight, 
published in the Calcutta Journ. Nat. Hist. vol. viii. p. 176, [and since in Dr. Wight’s Icones, vol. iv. p. 6. t. 1202].! 
IIL. A third white-flowered group contains but one Sikkim species, the 2. argenteum, a very conspicuous tree at an 
elevation of between 8,000 and 9,000 fect. In beauty of foliage it nearly equals the last mentioned (2. Fulconeri), 
and the flowers are larger than in any but 2. Dalhousie, and of the same form as those of the scarlet group; the 
stamens are of the normal number, but the ovarium is many-celled. Though evidently distinct, this species combines the 
characters of most of the other groups. In size of flower and colour, as already observed, it resembles R. Dalhousie, 
as it does in its unusually membranous leaves ;? in the colour of the flower, size of foliage, small calyx, and many-celled 
ovarium, 2. Falconeri ;—while the number of stamens, general habit, silvery under-surface of leaf, &c., connect it with 
R. arboreum.3 
IV. A singular set includes the dwarfish kinds to which 2. cinnabarinum and R. Roylit belong. The flowers are 
small, the corolla is subcoriaceous, narrowed at the base of the tube, and its colour is a peculiarly dirty brick-red, somewhat 
iridescent with blue in bud, and its lobes are rounded, subacute, not notched or wrinkled. The calyces are small, 
coriaceous, and squamous in both; in one the lobes are remarkably unequal. In the number of stamens, cells of the 
ovarium, &c., they agree with the usual characters of the genus. 
V. Of the normal or typical group, indicated to be such by the number of species it contains, by the prevalence 
of scarlet flowers, uniformity of corolla and number of parts, there are two subdivisions: one has a fully developed calyx, 
in the other the calyx is very small and coriaceous. R. lancifolium and R. barbatum represent the former section, in both 
of which that organ is as conspicuous as in R. Dalhousie. R. arboreum, R. Wallichii, and R. Campbelliz, belong to the 
latter section. The species of this group known to me are all trees, of contracted range and gay flowers. 
VI. The little 2. edeagnoides may be classed in another group: it is a very alpine plant, of which I possess only 
the foliage and fruit. Its scaliness (a character which seems most conspicuous in the smaller and more alpine species) 
allies it to 2. cinnabarinum, but it is apparently single-flowered and calyculate. \ 
The sub-Himalayan mountains are surely the centrum of this truly fine genus, distinguished by the number and 
variety of its species and groups, by the great size and eminent beauty of several, which form conspicuous features in the 
landscape over many degrees of longitude, through a great variety of elevations, and clothe a vast amount of surface. 
* From this figure and description it will be seen, that although in many respects near 2. Falconeri, especially in the dense many-flowered 
capitulum, smallish many-cleft corolla, numerous stamens and cells of the ovary, yet that it is quite distinct in the smaller cuspidate leaves, 
white and scaly beneath, and in the deeply ten-lobed corolla. Ep. 
* The term membranous is of course used comparatively here ; in no species is the foliage truly so,—Jess coriaceous were the better, 
though more cumbrous, term. 
5 Dr. Hooker had here stated of R. argentewm, that R. Grifithianum, Wight, in Calcutta Journal of Natural History, vol. viii. p. 176, is 
probably a close ally of this ; but that has since been published in Dr. Wight’s Icones Plant. India Orientalis, vol. iv. p. 6. t. 1201, and proves 
to belong to, or rather to constitute, a very distant section, having very lax racemose flowers, a nearly entire, spreading, scutelliform calyx 
(quite unlike that of any other species), many (15 ?) stamens, and ten cells to the ovary. It is a native of Bootan. Ep. 
