AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 107 



this 'happy valley.' Among a collection of other trees 

 and shrubs, it includes the Sikkim Rhododendrons received 

 from Kew through the kindness of the late Sir William 

 Hooker. Many of them are doing well. The strongest 

 and most floriferous are Thomsoni, niveum, and Bland- 

 fordiseflorum ; the latter produces its gay and peculiar 

 blossoms in the greatest profusion, and the bushes of 

 Thomsoni are gorgeous with their wax-like bells of the 

 richest crimson. Being seedling plants they vary much, 

 and several cannot be identified when compared with Dr. 

 Hooker's exquisite drawings, or rather the plates from his 

 drawings. This year the beautiful yellow Rhododendron 

 Wightii flowered for the first time, but the blossoms were 

 pure white; its foliage, however, is unmistakable. Some 

 of the more tender sorts, Dalhousise, Edgworthii, Aucklandii, 

 Falconeri, and one or two others, will not endure the 

 winter even at Combe Royal. The Japanese Rhododendron 

 Metternichii has borne the severity of the last two winters 

 well, as have five plants of the Himalayan R. cinnamomeum. 

 The preceding winters have proved fatal to many large 

 specimens of the true R. arboreum, two only having 

 survived. The trunk of one of the defunct trees was 

 measured recently, and found to be, a short distance above 

 the earth, three feet one inch in circumference. 



The recent proprietors of Combe Royal have been 

 gardeners as well. As far back as 1812 a practice of 

 J. L. Luscombe, Esq., for successfully raising cuttings of 

 the Citrus genus was made known to the Royal Hor- 

 ticultural Society, and approved by the then President 

 T. A. Knight, Esq. The same Society awarded him a 

 Banksian medal for Oranges, Lemons, and Citrons, exhibited 

 in the April of 1827." 



