80 HuTCHINSON—TIHE MADDENI SERIES OF RHODODENDRON. 
36. Rhododendron formosum, Wallich, Plant. Asiat. Rar., 
a. 3, t 207 (1832) ; G. Don, Gen. Syst. ili. 845 (1834); 
DC. Prodr. vii. 721 (1839); Bot. Mag. t. 4457 (1849) ; 
C. B. Clarké “in Hook. f. Fi. Brit. ‘Ind. ii. 473 {1882}; 
Millais, Rhododendrons, 168 (1917), excl. var. Johnstone- 
anum. R. Gibsoni, Paxton, Mag. of Bot. viii. t. 217 (1841); 
Fl. des Serres, i. t. 18 (1845). 
A much branched shrub ; branches spreading, leafy, shining, 
the younger parts finely lepidote. Leaves crowded, very vari- 
able, oblanceolate to obovate, usually subacute or acute-acumi- 
nate at the apex, mucronate, gradually narrowed to the base, 
3-7 cm. long, 1-3 cm. broad, papery or thinly coriaceous, laxly 
lepidote above when young, soon becoming glabrous or nearly 
so, fringed with long white hairs on the margin especially when 
young (sometimes not fringed), more densely lepidote and 
glabrous beneath, the scales 1-14 times their own diameter 
apart, reddish-brown, and slightly unequal in size, the epidermis 
densely covered with short rod-like papillae ; midrib impressed 
above, prominent beneath, rather sparingly lepidote; lateral 
nerves mostly scarcely visible, 6-8 on each side of the midrib ; 
petiole 5-8 mm. long, lepidote, grooved above, often fringed 
with long hairs. Inflorescence 2-3-flowered, the pedicels arising 
from about the same level; flower-bearing buds narrowly 
ellipsoid, acute, the outer scales gradually changing into leaves, 
acuminate, a little lepidote on the back, fringed with soft short 
hairs ; pedicels up to 1.3 cm. long, rather densely scaly. Calyx 
very small, undulate, densely lepidote outside, occasionally with 
one or two long hairs on the margin. Corolla white, tinged with 
. yellow and rose, with 5 external red stripes, funnel-shaped, 
about 6 cm. long; tube about as long as the lobes, lepidote 
outside, softly pubescent towards the base; lobes 5, broadly 
ovate, rounded at the apex, about 2.5 cm. long and broad. 
Stamens 10, unéqual in length, #-14 times as long as the tube; 
filaments densely pubescent in their lower half; anthers 5 mm. 
long. Disk tomentose. Ovary 6-celled, about 5 mm. long, 
densely lepidote; style as long as or longer than the corolla, 
lepidote in the lower half or three-quarters, rather slender, 
crowned with a broad capitate stigma. Capsule straight, 
I.5-2 cm. long, about 8 mm. thick, strongly ribbed, densely 
lepidote. Seeds brown, 2 mm. long, sharply pointed at one 
end. 
AssAM. Khasia Hills; without precise locality, Smith (fide 
Wallich, l.c.), type. Between Moflong and Myrung, gth Novem- 
ber 1835, fis., Griffith (Kew Distrib., No. 3506); towards 
Kala Panee, 3rd November 1835, fr., Griffith, 770 (Kew Distrib., 
