EO BALFOUR—NEW SPECIES OF RHODODENDRON. 
pany with it and that seeds of the two collected together have 
been mixed. We have no record in Mr. Forrest’s dried collec- 
tions of a plant like Rh. Fittranum. 
Rh. Fittianum promises to be a valuable horticultural plant, 
and is also of interest from the botanical standpoint. 
It belongs to the Dauricum series of rhododendrons which 
is typified in Rh. dauricum, Linn., a familiar and decorative 
plant of our shrubberies which has been in cultivation since 
1780. Rh. dauricum is a plant of considerable range in N.W. 
Asia. Its distribution, as given by Maximowicz in 1870,* is :— 
Siberian Altai to the extreme east, Kamtschatka, Davuria, 
Russian Manchuria to the mouth of the Amur, and the con- 
fines of Corea. Hemsley ¢ records a remarkable extension of its 
range into Chili and Shantung. It is now known from Yezo in 
the extreme north of Japan. From West China there is no record. 
The most striking feature of Rh. Fittianum is its floriferous- 
ness. This is due to the development of flower-shoots in the 
axils of the leaves throughout the length of the shoots. This 
free flower-formation is not common in rhododendrons. The 
most familiar example is perhaps that of Rh. racemosum, Franch., 
a plant commonly cultivated in gardens nowadays. «The West 
Himalayan Rh. virgatum, Hook. f. and its Chinese representative 
Rh. oleifolium, Franch. show it also. But the branching in 
_ Rh. Fittianum is not quite the same as in these species., In them 
each axillary flower-shoot is that and no more—it begins with 
sterile bracteal scale-leaves covering the flower-bud and ends 
in the inflorescence. In Rh. Fittianum the axillary shoots 
are vegetative in the first instance, produce a few green leaves 
and then end in the flower-bud covered by its bracts. In 
Rh. dauricum the lateral flowering shoots are axillary to the 
last-formed leaves only, and are therefore clustered at the 
end of the mother shoot and they may or may not begin with 
foliage-leaves. 
“\. Rhododendron fulvum, Balf. f. et W. W. Sm. 
Frutex 3-6 m. altus. Rami crassi ad 7 mm. diam. fulvo- © 
tomentosi tomento per annos plures persistente. Alabastra 
ignota. Folia petiolata ad 18 cm. longa sub anthesi deflexa ; 
lamina coriacea ad 15.5 cm. longa ad 6 cm. lata elongata 
anguste obovata vel late oblanceolata apice breviter et acumin- 
atim corneo-apiculata margine plana basi obtusa haud rotun- 
data, supra glabra sed pilorum juvenilium vestigiis minute 
notata opaca laevis epapillata costa media et venis primariis 
* Maxim. Rhodod. Asiae Orient. (1870), 43. 
t Hemsl. in Journ. oe SOC: XXvii ht 22; 
