422 Dr Graham's Lisi of Rare Plants. 



The plant described flowered very freely in the stove of the Botanic Gar- 

 den in December and January l<>37-!i, and, tiiough it differs from that 

 figured by Professor Lindley very greatly in its colour, and in the form 

 of the lobe in the disk, can only be considered a variety of the same 

 species. Possibly the colour may have been in some degree the conse- 

 quence of the season at which the plant flowered. 



Rhododendron albifloriuTi, Hooker. 



E.. alhiflorum; fruticosum; foliis lanceolato-oblongis, utrinque ramulisque 

 pilosis, subtus pallidis ; pedunculis axillaribus, unifloris, solitariis bi- 

 nisve; calycibus 6-partitis, pedunculo longioribus, segmentis ellipti- 

 cis ; coroUis campanulatis calycem duplo superantibus. 



Ehododendron albiflorum, Hooh MS. 



Descriptiok Shrub erect, branched from the root, bark dark brown, yel- 

 lowish-green on the twigs, and there sparingly covered with long subap- 

 pressed dark brown hairs. Leaves {\\ i\\(A\ long ^ths of an inch broad) 

 very shortly petiolate, lanceolato-oblong, crenulate, undulate, concave 

 upwards, sparingly covered on both sides with hairs similar to those on 

 the shoots, bright green above, and often coloured towards the edges, paler 

 below where the middle rib and veins are prominent, but grooved on the 

 upper side. /^erfi««c/Maxillary, single-flowered, solitary or in pairs. Calyx 

 5-partite, longer than the peduncle, as well as it greenish-yellow, and co- 

 vered with short green glandular hairs, and others which are longer, some- 

 what chaffy, brown at the base of the peduncle, but becoming greener up- 

 wards over the calyx ; segments imbricated, equal. Calyx elliptical, shortly 

 ciliated, glabrous within, nerved. Corolla (three-fourths of an inch across, 

 nearly as long) campanulate, 5-cleft, white, with a few small orange- 

 coloured circular spots on both sides of the upper segment, and on the 

 upper side of the two adjoining segments, glabrous except on the throat, 

 which is hairy, obscurely veined, twice as long as the calyx ; segments imbri- 

 cated, cordato- ovate, blunt, at the bottom of the corolla the sweet juice is 

 collected into five globules, but there is no conspicuous nectary. Stamens 

 ten, shorter than the corolla, rather longer than the calyx, nearly equal, 

 the lower and the alternate ones rather longer, subequally connivent, hy- 

 pogynous; filaments subclavate, hairy in their lower half; anthers ellip- 

 tical, short, notched at both ends, attached to the filaments at the base 

 of the upper notch, without awn, bilocular, opening hy an oblique ellip- 

 tical hole at the top of each loculament. Pistil nearly equal to the sta- 

 mens in length ; stigma of 5 erect, subdivided lobes, surrounded by a ho- 

 rizontal border ; style clavate, glabrous in the upper half, hairy in the 

 lower, slightl_y declined ; germen rounded, in its upper half obscurely 

 lobed, dark green, and covered with long glandular hairs, and short dense 

 pubescence, in the lower Iialf subglabrous without any of the glandular 

 hairs, yellow, distinctly 10-lobed, 5-celled, each cell with a large placenta 

 projecting from the middle of the central column, and covered with nu- 

 merous ovules, the lower and upper part of the germen being empty. 



This very distinct species was raised at the Botanic Garden from seed ga- 

 thered by Mr Drummond in British America in 1828. It does not grow 

 freely, and flowered rather sparingly in the open border for the first time 

 in July 1837. I"- is to be regretted if it is found difficult of cultivation, 

 for Mr Drummond slated that it formed a very handsome shrub. 



