PREFACE. 
1% the few remarks it seemed necessary to offer as introductory to the “Fasciculus of the Rhododendrons of Sikkim- 
Himalaya,” we made the statement that the author of that work, during a limited sojourn in the country and under 
many difficulties and privations, had been able to detect there no less than eleven different species of Lhododendron, 
of which nine were considered new. <A longer sojourn in the country, and more extended travels, and excursions to the 
more elevated regions of this vast mountain-chain, on the part of Dr. Hooker, have now brought to light no less than 
forty-three species, natives of Sikkim-Himalaya! many of which even exceed, in the size and beauty of their flowers 
or their foliage, the handsomest of those which had been previously discovered. Seeds, too, of a large proportion of 
these, have been sent to the Royal Gardens of Kew, and have arrived in so good a state, that we have been eminently 
successful in rearing them. Of all, accurate descriptions were drawn up on the spot; a great number of drawings 
were made, and Messrs. Reeve and Benham have readily acceded to the wish of the author to publish two more Fasciculi 
each of ten plates ;—the plates executed with the same degree of skill and care, and coloured with the same fidelity 
to nature, as the preceding ones. 
Not content with drawing and describing the species that fell under his own observation in India, Dr. Hooker has 
occupied himself with a hastily compiled Conspectus of all the species known to inhabit continental India, and in this 
we find forty-three species, arranged in eight groupes or divisions. This Conspectus we give in the present portion 
of the work, and by which it will be seen what species are to appear in the third and last Fasciculus.—Ep. 
Royat Garpens, Kew, 
February 1, 1851. 
