164 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxxi 



others not over one and a half centimeters, excepting 

 Rh. mengtszense (2 cm.). The truss is racemose-umbel- 

 late, with a rhachis varying from one centimeter or 

 even less in Rh. me^igtszense and Rh. anthosphaerum to 

 three centimeters in Rh. irroratum ; in most of them it is 

 about one and a half centimeters long. The clothing of 

 this rhachis is not the same in all. It is glandular (Rh. 

 adenostemonum, Rh. irroratwrri) ; floccose (Rh. antho- 

 sphaerum, Rh. araiophyllum, Rh. eritiTnum, Rh. hylo- 

 threptum, Rh. pogoyiostylum) ; floccose glabrescent (Rh. 

 gymnanthum) ; tomentosely and persistently floccose (Rh. 

 ceraceiiin, Rh. lukiangense) ; scurfy (Rh. tanastylum) ; 

 floccose glandular (RJt. agastum) ; gland-setose (Rh. 

 mengtszense); glabrous (Rh. spanotrichum). These are 

 the features as they appear in the dried specimens, but 

 owing to lack of material I am not confident that they are 

 truly representative. I see, for example, in Rh. adeno- 

 stem,onum traces of a toinentum under the insertion of 

 some of the pedicels, but am unable to determine whether 

 these are vestiges of an early tomentum covering the whole 

 rhachis, are localised axillar}^ tufts to the bracts such as one 

 finds in many species of Rhododendron in which the rhachis 

 is not tomentose, or are portions of the hair-tufts which coat 

 the inside surface of the base of the bracts and which have 

 become adherent to the rhachis or base of the pedicel. 



I have seen no perfect flower-buds, but from bracts which 

 have remained during the earlier stages of anthesis, I 

 gather that the outer bracts are more or less rotundate, 

 more or less crustaceous and coriaceous, have the central 

 portion somewhat concave inwardly, with the margin 

 thinner, and are more or less glandular on the outside. 

 The inner fertile bracts seem fairly uniformly oblong, wedge- 

 shaped, somewhat truncate at the top, always densely and 

 whitely sericeous outside, and sometimes also glandular 

 towards the apex. The bracteoles are often longer than 

 the pedicels, and are not glandular. The pedicels, like the 

 inflorescence rhachis, vary in clothing: — glabrous (Rh.araio- 

 pjhyllum, Rh. lukiangense); puberulous (Rh. ceraceum); 

 floccose (Rh. spanotrichuvi, RJt. tanastylum or glabrous) • 

 floccose glabrescent (Rh. eritimum, Rh. gymnanthum); 

 glandular (R/). agastum, Rh. irroratum) ; glandular floccose 



