BALFOUR—NEW SPECIES OF RHODODENDRON. 159 
China and adjoining countries which recent exploration has 
brought to us. Rh. coriaceum was described in 1898; all the 
other Chinese forms have come to us during the past decade. 
Rh. regale belongs to that set of the Falconeri series in which 
the underleaf indumentum is always grey—very different from 
the rusty red or red-cinnamon coloured indumentum that 
characterises the other species in the series and which is so 
familiar in the leaves of Rh. Faiconert. It shares this type of 
indumentum with Rh. coriaceum, Rh. Hodgsoni, and Rh. Rex— 
species it will be observed from widely separate areas—and the 
conspicuous feature of the indumentum in these forms is not 
only one of colour but also of the form of the cup-hairs which 
constitute its upper stratum. These are bowl-shaped (i.e. with 
rounded base) wider or narrower, or funnel-shaped (i.e. with 
pointed base) with wide mouth—the mouth fringed or not— 
and as they stand side by side upon the leaf surface the mouths 
of the cup-hairs appear as openings into cavities and the whole 
surface acquires a foveolate appearance. As the leaf oldens 
and the time for shedding of these cup-hairs which have thin 
walls approaches they collapse and look like deflated bladders 
scintillating on the surface of the grey persistent pellicle of under 
stratum of indumentum. This is most characteristic and enables 
one readily to separate the four species in which it occurs from 
other members of the Falconeri series where the upper stratum 
apart from colour is more or less woolly. In Rh. Hodgsoni only 
do these cup-hairs become somewhat adpressed to the pellicle 
beneath and form a somewhat agglutinate scurf. These four 
species of the Falconeri series so easily recognised by their grey 
scintillating indumentum may be distinguished thus :— 
Cup-hairs of underleaf indumentum bowl-shaped not 
Corolla rose, aba pen 3 cm. long. cortaceum. 
Stamens 14 puberu 
Ovary Achamibere its hairs floccose. 
Cup-hairs of underleaf ain crn aoen fringed. 
Corolla rose, spotted, a -5 Cc Rex 
Stamens 16 puberulou , 
Ovary 9-chambered, its hairs floccose. 
Corolla cream-w a peehet purple, about 3.5 cm. long. 
Stamens 18 puberu 
Ovary cnet its hairs fasciate. 
eee H underleaf indumentum open shallow cup 
regale. 
ard] ed often agglutinate. 
Corolla ga unspotted, about 3 cm. long. 
Stamens about 15 glabrous. 
Ovary 9-12-chambered, its hairs woolly. 
Cup-hairs of underleaf indumentum funnel-shaped fringed. } 
; Hodgsont. 
