14, 
RHODODENDRON PENDULUM, stove. w. 
Pendulous Rhododendron. 
Tas. XIII. 
Fraticulus epiphytus pendulus, caulibus gracillimis dichotome ramosis, ramulis pedunculis petiolis brevibus foliisque subter (junioribus 
utrinque) tomento fulvo laxo dense vestitis, foliis elliptico-oblongis subacutis apiculatis convexis superne nitidis, pedunculis terminalibus 
subbinis rarius axillaribus parvis, calyce profunde 5-lobo hirsuto, lobis ellipticis submembranaceis equalibus, corolle albz extus 
bandnlati. «sy 
lepidotze tubo brevissimo, limbo patente 5-lobo, lobis aqualibus integris, st: 10, filamentis (nunc 2-3 basi inter 
se coalitis) rectis inferne dilatatis supra medium dense barbatis, antheris magnis obovatis, ovario parvo densissime fulvo-villoso, 
capsula brevi calycem persistentem vix superante villosa basi lepidota. 
Has. Sikkim-Himalaya; pendulous from the limbs of tall Pine-trees (Abies Webbiana and Brunoniana) ; elev. 9-11,000 feet, rarely found 
upon rocks; often covered with Usnea. 
Stems three to four feet long, sparingly but dichotomously branched, dranches scarcely stouter than a crow’s quill: young 
shoots very villous. Leaves chiefly confined to the apices of the ultimate branches, on short petioles, spreading, between 
elliptical and oblong, acute or nearly so, and further tipped with a short mucro, smooth (never lepidote) and shining above, 
the margins a little recurved, an inch and a half to two inches long, and about three-quarters of an inch broad, below 
densely clothed with ferruginous tomentum. Seales of the flower-buds coriaccous, the outer lepidote, the inner villous. 
Peduneles two or three from the apex of the young leafy branches, very short, but longer than the petioles, ferruginously 
villous, bearing one or two linear éracteas. Flowers small. Calya large in proportion to the size of the flower, deeply 
cut into five, oval, membranaceous-lobes, lepidote below, villous. Corolla pure white, about an inch in diameter, externally 
lepidote, tube very short, gradually expanding into the nearly equally five-lobed Zim : lobes votundate, waved at the margin, 
entire. Stamens ten: filaments straight, sometimes more or less combined at the base, and there dilated; below the 
middle is a dense mass of white hairs; anthers large in proportion to the flower. Ovary ovate, densely villous, lepidote 
towards the base. Style very short, curved upwards, and thickened beneath the stigma, which is a convex, scarcely lobed 
disc. Capsule broadly ovate, acute, hairy, four to five lines long, five-celled, five-valved. 
This species is inodorous, very distinct, but clearly allied to R. camellieflorum, Hook. fil., the lepidote character of 
that species giving place to a denser fulvous or ferruginous tomentum here. In the size and colour and regular lobes of 
the corolla, and also in the general form of the calyx, the present may be compared with the 2. albiflorum* of the Rocky 
Mountains of North America, but in little else. Growing, as it does, an epiphyte, upon the trunks of trees in the gloomy 
and almost impenetrable forests, it is a plant very difficult of detection. 
* Mook. Fl. Bor. Am, vol. ii. p. 43. f. 133. 
Tas. XIT. Rhododendron pendulum. Fig. 1. Flower. 2. Stamens. 3. Pistil. 4. Transverse section of ovary :—magnified. 5. Capsule 
with its persistent calyx :—natural size. 
