28 HuUTCHINSON—THE MADDENI SERIES OF RHODODENDRON. 
6. Rhododendron crassum, Franch. in Bull. Soc. Bot. 
rance, xxxiv. 282 (1887); Bean in Kew Bull. 1914, 201; 
Millais, Rhododendrons, 149 (1917). 
- A shrub or tree up to 6.5 m. high; older branchlets covered 
with minutely punctate grey bark; one-year-old branchlets 
closely covered with small scales: axillary leaf-bearing buds 
minute and still dormant at the time of flowering. Leaves 
rather crowded and whorled, lanceolate or obovate-oblanceolate, 
mostly more or less triangular and obtusely mucronate at the 
apex, subcuneate at the base, 6-12 cm. long, 2-7 cm. broad, 
very thick and rigidly coriaceous, lepidote above especially 
when young and later mainly towards the midrib, at length 
rather glossy and reticulate, densely lepidote below, the scales 
ferruginous, unequal, and less than their own diameter apart 
or more or less contiguous, with rather narrow membranous 
fringe ; midrib impressed above, prominent below and lepidote ; 
lateral nerves 8-12 on each side of the midrib; slender but 
fairly distinct below; petiole about 1.5-2 cm. long, stout, 
closely lepidote, grooved on the upper side. Inflorescence 
3-5-flowered, the pedicels arising from approximately the same 
level; bud-scales very thick and leathery, the outer ones 
rounded, laxly lepidote and minutely puberulous outside, the 
inner ones widely bilobed at the apex and silky villous outside 
towards the top ; pedicels stout, I-1.5 cm. long, densely lepidote 
especially towards the apex. Calyx rather variable, up to 1.3 cm. 
long, 5-lobed to near the base, lobes membranous, more or less 
oblong, glabrous. Corolla white, 6-9 cm. long, rather narrowly 
funnel-shaped, densely lepidote all over the outside; tube 
longer than the lobes; lobes 5, oblong or broadly elliptic, with 
wavy margins. Stamens 15-21,* longer than the corolla tube; 
filaments strigillose-pubescent in their lower half; anthers 
about 6 mm. long. Ovary to-celled, densely scaly, short and 
broadly ovoid; style a little shorter than the corolla, stout, 
lepidote to near the apex, crowned by a large disk-like stigma. 
Capsule straight, 3 cm. long, about 1.4 cm. thick, lepidote, 
10-ribbed or valved. 
WESTERN YUNNAN. Hou-tien-pa, Mt. Tsang-chan, above 
Tali, 7500 ft., Delavay, 2112 (type in Herb. Paris)—not seen. 
Amongst shrubs on Mt. Tsang-chan, gooo ft., fls. 15th June 
1889, Delavay, 4157. Shady moist situations in pine forests 
on the eastern flank of the Tali Range, lat. 25° 40’ N., 11,000-— 
12,000 ft., shrub 15-20 ft., fis. rosy-white, August 1906, G. 
Forrest, 4139. Eastern flank of the Tali Range, lat. 25° 40’ 
* Franchet describes the number of stamens as 13, but in the specimen at 
Kew there are 20. I have not found fewer than 15 in any specimen of crassum. 
