OF SIKKIM-HIMALAYA. 13 
Mingled with these are Pyri, Pruni, Maples, Barberries, and Azaleas, ‘Olea, Ilex, Limonia, Hydrangea, several Capri- 
Joliacee, Gaultheria, and Andromeda ; the Apple and the Rose are most abundant. Stauntonia, with its glorious racemes 
of purple flowers, creeps over all; so do Kadsura and Ochna; whilst a Currant, with erect racemes, grows epiphytally on 
Rhododendron and on Pyrus. 
The habits of the species of Rhododendron differ considerably, and, confined as I was to one favourable spot by a deluge 
of rain, I had ample time to observe four of them. R. Campbellia, the only one in full flower early in May, is the most 
prevalent, the ropes of my tent spanning an area between three of them. Some were a mass of scarlet blossom, displaying 
a sylvan scene of the most gorgeous description. Mr. Nightingale’s? Rhododendron groves, I thought, may surpass these 
in form and luxuriance of foliage, or in outline of individual specimens ; but for splendour of colour those of the Himalaya 
can only be compared with the Butea Jrondosa of the plains. Many of their trunks spread from the centre thirty or 
forty feet every way, and together form a hemispherical mass, often forty yards across and from twenty to fifty feet in 
height! The stems and branches of these aged trees, gnarled and rugged, the bark dark-coloured and clothed with 
‘At Embley near Romsey, Hants, the seat of William Edward Nightingale, Esq., whose beautiful grounds boast of drives through 
what may really be called woods or groves of Rhododendrons, many of them self-sown.—The mention of these grounds (adorned with exotic 
Rhododendrons) by a naturalist luxuriating amidst the aboriginal species of the lofty mountains of Sikkim-Himalaya, makes me desirous 
to introduce here a brief notice of the plants in question. I could not trust my own memory for a correct statement of what it has been 
my privilege to see, but Miss Nightingale has obligingly communicated to me the following particulars :— 
“Our Rhododendrons were chiefly planted about thirty years ago: the largest number are in an exceedingly wet ‘bottom’ of deep 
black peat full of drains, sheltered with sloping banks of Birch and Fir, with a good deal of Laurel, large Kalmias and Azaleas near the 
road. ‘This part was originally a nursery-garden of about four acres: the shrubs have been cut continually to keep the road clear, and now 
make a bank seventeen or eighteen feet high. They are scattered over the high ground (a dry black sand) for about two miles, where 
they cover another bank of heathery soil and another bottom of the deep peat. There are not above a dozen of the 2. maximum amongst 
them, and about three times as many of the arboreum and hybrid Scarlets which we find quite hardy, but which seem to flower best in the 
high and dry situations. The Ponticum and var. roseum seed themselves to a great extent, and the consequence is an immense variety in the 
shape, size, and colour of the flowers, hardly any two plants being quite alike. 
“The largest single Rhododendron is one hundred and fifty feet round and twenty feet high: there are several of ninety-seven and ninety- 
eight feet round, but these have been cramped for room by their neighbours. The tallest I can find grows between a Birch anda Portugal Laurel, 
and is twenty-five feet high, its single upright stem measuring nineteen inches in circumference. It is quite an exception, for they fork generally 
immediately on emerging from the ground ; and though there is one which measures five fect ten inches in the girth of its trank an inch from 
the ground, yet as he leaves his good ways and divides immediately after, I am not sure you will grant him his diploma as a tree. The forks 
are from eighteen inches to two feet in cireumference. The variegated kind, with long footstalks to the flowers, has perhaps the thickest stem 
with us. The outside branches of the large individuals root themselves all round and make impenetrable thickets. We plant out the 
seedlings, which come up very thickly wherever an Open space gives them room, and they are now scattered over most of the wild ground about. 
“T think this is pretty nearly all we have to tell, but we may add that the Kalmias and Yellow Azaleas are some of them ten feet high 
and wide in proportion.” 
It may be interesting to record some particulars of another favoured spot for Rhododendrons, namely, Penllergare, Glamorgan, the 
seat of Dillwyn Llewellyn, Esq., who writes in reply to my queries :— 
“The soil and climate of this district suit that class of plants well, as is attested by the seedlings of the common Rhododendron Ponticum, 
which appear in thousands throughout our woods. The rough sketch I enclose is of this species: it measures in height fifteen feet ten 
f 
inches, and pletely covers a cir of one hundred and ten feet. The plant grows by itself upon a lawn, without any trees to 
overshadow or interfere with it, and it forms a perfectly symmetrical and compact shrub, with dense foliage and short-jointed wood. 
“We have also a specimen of 2. arboreum, var. roseum, nine feet four inches in height, and in circumference forty-eight feet : it was 
planted fifteen years ago and has never received the slightest protection. Like the last, it stands alone on a lawn, and is of a beautifully 
compact form. It has 3,200 flower-buds now upon it. The single stem from which it rises measures one foot nine inches in girth. 
“The American species also flourish here with great vigour. A specimen of 2. Catawhiense measures nine feet six inches in height, and 
covers forty-one fect six inches of circumference : this, however, is much younger than either of the preceding. It is also growing under 
the shade of large oak-trees, for which reason it is somewhat drawn and not so fine and thick in its growth as it might otherwise 
have been.” 
It may be observed that Mr. Loudon, in his Arboretum Britannicum, has not described any specimens of Rhododendron arloreum of the 
size above given. The largest he has noticed are at Wimbledon House, thirty-three feet in the spread of its branches; at Cuffnells in 
Hampshire, thirty-nine feet ditto; Woburn Abbey, twenty-eight feet ditto ; Shipley Hall, Derbyshire, fifty-six feet ditto, and sixteen feet the 
greatest height. Ep. 
