86 BALFOUR—NEW SPECIES OF RHODODENDRON. 
I mm. longis, filamentis basi vix latioribus glabris nunc pilis 
solitariis praeditis. Discus puberulus. Gynaeceum circ. 2.4 cm. 
longum corollam et stamina superans; ovarium cylindrico- 
conoideum paullo sulcatum circ. 3 mm. longum nigro-tinctum 
dense imbricatim lepidotum vertice leviter pilosum; stylus 
glaber erubescens sub stigmate magno lobulato atro-purpureo 
paullo expansus. 
Species Rh. siderophylio, Franch. affinis foliis minoribus 
subtus puberulis, bracteolis pedicellis multo brevioribus, inter 
notas alias facile recognoscenda. 
N.E. Yunnan. Dry hills behind Mo-tsou. Alt. 850 m. (ste ?). 
Shrubby rhododendron with persistent leaves and small rose 
flowers. Maire. No. 137 in Herb. Edin. 
A species akin to Rh. siderophyllum, Franch. which to our 
present knowledge does not spread out of East Yunnan. Rh. 
bivelatum has smaller leaves, which are not so thick as 
those of Rh. siderophylium, and can be recognised at once by 
the somewhat unusual character in its type of leaf of a coating 
of hairs on the under-leaf surface intermixed with the peltate 
scales. The petiole shares the puberulous as well as lepidote 
character. Like Rh. siderophyllum our species retains the 
bracts during flowering and they completely envelop the 
pedicels, but the bracteoles in RA. bivelatum are much shorter, 
only about half the length of the pedicels, whilst in Rh. sidero- 
phylium they are longer than the pedicels. 
I only know the plant in the single sheet of specimens which 
came to us from Abbé Maire, and there is not another plant in 
his collection for which it can be mistaken. Whilst the details 
of character especially of the flower take it to Rh. siderophyllum, 
yet it is not as like that species as is another West Yunnan 
species—Rh. stereophyllum, Balf. f. et W. W. Sm. (see p. 159). 
The three species can be recognised at sight thus :— 
Rh. siderophyllum _. Twigs stout red densely lepidote and 
becoming closely warted; leaves 
large pointed. 
Rh. stereophyllum _ . Twigs stout red distantly lepidote and 
puberulous with short hairs and 
becoming distantly warted; leaves 
medium rounded. | 
Rh. bivelatum . Twigs thin scurfily lepidote and puber- 
ulous with long hairs, not becom- 
ing warted ; leaves smaller pointed 
obtuse. 
