96 BALFOUR—NEW SPECIES OF RHODODENDRON. 
showing transition to scale-leaves, scale-leaves falling as bud 
expands ; outer scale-leaves as much as 1.5 cm. long, longer 
than the body of the bud, woody with short broad base tapering 
upwards into a long keeled tail ending in a red apicular tip its 
margins recurving grey outside with an indumentum of intri- 
cately woven branching hairs; intermediate scale-leaves oval 
oblong apiculate clad like the outer; innermost scale-leaves mem- 
branous yellowish or yellow-green carried up on the elongating 
shoot as much as 4 cm. long spathulate and tapering into a long 
apiculus, pubescent on back with interlocking floccose hairs 
and flock-fringed, hairs densely clustered round the tapering 
point ; young leaves revolute in bud with a white sparse indu- 
mentum of rosette long-branched hairs on upper surface, below 
densely tomentose white. Leaves petiolate as much as 9.5 cm. 
long; lamina leathery obovate or oblong-obovate as much as 
g cm. long 4 cm. broad apex rounded or even subtruncate with 
a short apiculus and red tuberculate mucro, margin cartilaginous 
entire, base obtuse and more or less decurrent on petiole ; upper 
surface dark olive-green mat shagreened sprinkled with vestiges 
of juvenile rosette flocks, midrib grooved lined by flock-hairs, 
primary veins 10-12 on each side slightly grooved; under 
surface dark tawny clad everywhere with a bistrate persistent 
indumentum, the hairs of upper stratum with long zigzag many- 
celled stems much branched the branches interweaving and 
ultimately becoming slightly agglutinate so that the leaf-surface 
does not appear woolly and honeycombed but somewhat smooth, 
often in older leaves cracking slightly, under stratum of rosette- 
_ hairs with hardly any stalk the few branches of each rosette 
long twisted pointed, midrib raised slightly reddened covered 
by the indumentum, primary veins hardly showing; petiole 
about 5 mm. long grooved above clad with an indumentum like 
the stem. Flowers in 4-6-flowered terminal umbels; outer 
bracts like the outer scale-leaves of foliage-bud and of like size 
followed by oblong broad crustaceous bracts with cucullate upper 
half thinner on the margin, innermost fertile bracts yellow silky 
obovate nearly 2 cm. long’; bracteoles thin linear and spathu- 
late about 1 cm. long shorter than pedicel densely pilose from 
base ; pedicel about 1.5 cm. long densely clad with long bristle- 
hairs branched at the tip eglandular hardly expanded below 
the calyx. Calyx red somewhat fleshy about 3 mm. long cup- 
shaped glabrous on back cut to about half its length into 5 
rounded or pointed flock-fringed lobes ultimately splitting down 
interpretative lines and falling off from base of cup. Corolla 
deep crimson tubular-campanulate about 4 cm. long glabrous 
inside and outside 5-lobed ; tube slightly fleshy at base and there 
slightly gibbous and retuse ; lobes rounded broad about 1.5 cm. 
