THE HEATH AND RHODODENDRON FAMILY. 299 



one of the most peculiarly constituted as it is one of the most 

 peculiarly featured of all the Rhododendron tribe, having its 

 rugose leaves densely pubescent on the upper while it is perfectly 

 shaggy with tomentum on the under side, every stem being 

 clothed with the same tomentum, I have another most singular 

 peculiarity to note in regard to it namely, that while it will 

 cross other species, it will take on a cross from none, that is 

 to say, while it has been repeatedly made the male, it has never 

 with me, though I have tried it often, nor with any other that 

 I have heard of, submitted to become the female parent I 

 have crossed it repeatedly on JR. ciliatum, one of the minor 

 forms, too, of Dr Hooker's Himalayan species. It has been 

 crossed, too, on R. formosum in this neighbourhood, I believe, 

 in the Stanwell Nursery ; but I never could get it to take on 

 any cross whatever. R. Nuttalli behaved, with me, in the same 

 manner ; it would cross, but not be crossed : but I did not per- 

 severe with it as I did with R. Edgworthii. Now I do not 

 assert absolutely that R. Edgworthii, in the numerous tribe of 

 which it is a member, may not be hybridised with some other 

 of its kindred, but I could never get it to reciprocate a cross. 

 And this remarkable circumstance of non-reciprocity has per-, 

 plexed and defied me in innumerable instances throughout my 

 long experience in these pursuits. It occurred to me that the 

 pollen of larger forms might be of larger grains, and so might not 

 pass through the necessarily small ducts of the styles of smaller 

 species ; yet R. ciliatum, a tiny species of one foot high, was 

 crossed freely by R. Edgworthii, as I have just noticed, a 

 species of six feet high. I even crossed this latter species on a 

 pure Indian Azalea, though, by pulling the seed-pod before it 

 was ripe, I raised no seeds of this latter cross." 



The same gentleman, writing to the ' Gardeners' Chron- 

 icle,' remarks : " I have raised no end of another brood ob- 

 tained by crossing Rhododendron Nuttalli on another hybrid of 

 my own obtained by crossing R. formosum and R. Dalhousie- 

 anum" 



On the Continent, among the first to hybridise the Rhodo- 

 dendron were MM. Lemichez, who went to work with JR. 

 cataivlriense, R. maximum, R. caucasicum, and R. arboreum. 



Rhododendron Rovellii. A small-growing hardy hybrid raised 

 in Italy by M. Rovelli. It is the result of a cross effected be- 

 tween R. dauricum and R. arboreum, and is said to combine 

 the early-blooming habit of the former with the vigour and 

 glowing beauty of the latter species (see 'Revue Hort.,' 1867, 

 p. 159 ; Herbert's ' Amaryllidaceae,' p. 359). 



The following short list of early Rhododendron hybrids, with 



