30 THE FOREST 



dendrons is Rhododendron grande or argenteum, 

 which grows to a height of from 30 to 40 feet, and 

 has waxy bell-shaped flowers of a yellowish-white 

 suffused with pink, 2 to 3 inches long and about 

 the same across. The scarlet R. arboreum, so 

 general in the Himalaya, is common in Sikkim and 

 furnishes brilliant patches of colour in the forest. 

 And a magnificent species is R. Aucklandii or 

 Griffithianum, which has large white flowers tinged 

 with pink, of a firm fleshy texture and with a mouth 

 5 inches across. It has been called the queen of all 

 flowering shrubs. It grows well in Cornwall, and 

 among the hybrids from it is the famous Pink Pearl. 



R. Falconeri, a white-flowered species, is 

 eminently characteristic of the genus in habit, 

 place of growth and locality, never occurring below 

 10,000 feet. In foliage it is incomparably the finest. 

 It throws out one or two trunks clean and smooth, 

 30 feet or so high, the branches terminated by 

 immense leaves, deep green above edged with yellow 

 and ruby red-brown below. The creamy white 

 flowers are shaded with lilac and are slightly scented. 

 They are produced in tightly-packed clusters 9 to 

 15 inches across and twenty or more in numbers. 



A peculiar (in that it is of all the species the only 

 one that is epiphytal) but much the largest flowered 

 species is the R. Dalhousise. It grows, like the 

 orchids, among ferns and moss upon the trunks of 

 large trees, especially oaks and magnolias, and 

 attains a height of 6 to 8 feet. The flowers are 

 three to seven in a head, and are 3j to 5 inches 

 long and as much across the mouth, white with an 

 occasional tinge of rose and very fragrant. In size, 



