58 THE AZALEAS OF THE OLD WORLD 



China: prov. Hunan, Yiin-shan, near town of Wukang, alt. 1350- 

 1400 m. June 9, 1918, Dr. Handel-Mazzetti (No. 738). 



This rare and very distinct species is unknown to me in a living state. Dr. 

 Handel-Mazzetti says it is a shrub some 2 m. tall, and that it grows on the margins 

 of forests of broad-leafed trees and has white flowers with the tube of the corolla 

 suffused with rose-color and the upper-lobe spotted with purple. The gray and 

 rufous-gray appressed hairs which clothe the shoots, both surfaces of the young 

 leaves, the under-side of adult leaves, pedicels, calyx and ovary well characterise 

 the plant. It is evidently a much-branched twiggy shrub, and the shoots are clad 

 for a season with the usual flattened, appressed bristles of the group. The leaves 

 are persistent or semi-persistent, crowded at the end of the branches, dark green, 

 glabrescent above with impressed reticulate veins. In shape the leaves vary from 

 oval to lanceolate, being from 1.5 to 6.5 cm. long and from 1 to 2.5 cm. wide, acute 

 or obtuse and mucronate at apex. The flowers are small, clustered from 3 to 10 

 together at the end of the shoots; the corolla is about 1.5 cm. across, with a nearly 

 cylindric tube hairy on the outside, and spreading lobes. The calyx is small and 

 hidden beneath the gray or rufous straight hairs. The five stamens are exserted, 

 and are overtopped by the style, which has a capitate, lobed stigma. In Maximo- 

 wicz's figure the petioles vary from 0.5 to 1 cm. in length whereas on the specimen 

 cited none exceed 0.5 cm. but this is the only difference I can find and were more 

 material available this would probably disappear. 



The discoverer of this species is unknown but from what Bretschneider says it 

 seems probable that the original specimen came from the borders of western Fokien, 

 a region still very little known to us. Dr. Handel-Mazzetti's discovery in south- 

 western Hunan is an interesting extension of the range of the species, which has 

 for so long remained obscure. It is not in cultivation. 



Rhododendron Mariae Hance in Jour. Bot. XX. 230 (1882). 

 Hemsley in Jour. Linn. Soc. XXIX. 27 (1889). Dunn & Tutcher 

 in Kew Bull. Misc. Inform, add. ser. X. 155 (Fl. Hongk. and Kwang- 

 tung) (1912). Hutchinson in Millais, Rhodod. 207 (1917). 



China: prov. Kwangtung, Ting-woo Mt., May 26, 1918, C. 0. 

 Levine, Canton Christian College Herb. No. 2015 (Herb. Bur. Sci. 

 Manila); Loh-fau-shan, alt. 1000 m. August 10, 1917, C. 0. Levine 

 (No. 1563, Herb. Bur. Sci. Manila); same place, August 13, 1917, 

 E. D. Merrill (No. 11,103, Herb. Bur. Sci. Manila); Tiu-kaen-shan, 

 March, 1918, To-Kang-P'eng, Canton Christian College Herb. No. 

 2370 (Herb. Bur. Sci. Manila). 



Known to me only from Hance's description with which the above-cited speci- 

 mens agree exactly. It is evidently a twiggy shrub and the branchlets are clothed 

 with appressed, reddish gray bristles which, changing to gray persist more or less 

 during a couple of seasons. The leaves are dimorphic, clustered at the end of the 

 branches, persistent and for a plant of its group very coriaceous; they are shining 

 dark green and nearly glabrous above, with impressed, reticulate veins, pale below, 

 with raised veins and scattered appressed rufous bristles. The spring leaves are 

 elliptic-lanceolate from 3 to 9 cm. long and from 2 to 3 cm. wide, acute and mucronu- 

 late; the summer leaves are elliptic to obovate from 1 to 3 cm. long and from 0.8 

 to 1.5 cm. wide, obtuse or rounded at the mucronulate apex. The petioles are 



