288 BALFOUR—NEW SPECIES OF RHODODENDRON. 
derived from Wallich’s Nepal seeds or plants. What, then, was 
the source of the plant with sulphur-yellow flowers recorded 
by G. Don as in cultivation in 1820 ? 
Perhaps we get some light on the question from Wallich’s 
Catalogue. In the part of it published in 1829, the name Rh. 
anthopogon, D. Don appears under No. 759, and two stations are 
given :—1. Gossain Than; 2. Kumaon. Wallich therefore did 
not differentiate specifically N.W. Himalayan and Nepal speci- 
mens. This is the starting-point of a confusion which remains 
to this day. It seems to be likely that the plants to which 
G. Don refers as in cultivation in 1820 were derived from N.W. 
Himalaya. Abundance of plants had been introduced from 
N.W. Himalaya before this date, and as we now know all the 
N.W. Himalayan plants which have been named Rh. antho- 
pogon, Don have yellow flowers. We also know that there are 
yellow-flowered plants of the Anthopogon phylum in the East 
Himalaya—Bhutan, N. and E. Sikkim. Were Bhutan and 
Sikkim plants in cultivation at this early date? G. Don’s book 
of 1834 was intended to be a gardener’s dictionary. One may 
suppose that he would go to the garden not to the herbarium for 
his material; he found in cultivation this yellow-flowered 
plant to which, in absence of any Nepalese rose-purple or rose- 
flowered plants, the name anthopogon had become attached, and 
accepted it as the same as the Gossain Than plants, changing 
the colour designation in his description. Handbooks of to- 
day describe Rh. anthopogon, D. Don as yellow-flowered, but in 
cultivation nowadays under the name Rh. anthopogon there 
are pink-flowered and white-flowered plants, and also yellow- 
flowered plants. The pink-flowered with the white-flowered 
plants are not of the same species as the yellow-flowered, and 
the yellow-flowered plant as I have seen it is not the original 
and true Rh. anthopogon, D. Don. 
In 1839 Royle figured* under the name RA. pon et 
Don a yellow-flowered plant of which he gives the distribution 
ain Than and Sereenugur. Wail. Choor, Kedarkanta, and 
Lippa, etc., in Kunawur.” Royle thus accepts the authority 
of Wallich’s Catalogue, and he tells us that he had examined 
the sheets in the E. I. C. Herbarium. Two points .in Royle’s 
figure invite attention—the large yellow flowers and the per- 
‘sistent foliage-bud scale-leaves forming rosettes upon the branches 
at the base of the several years growth. Assuming that D. Don’s 
descriptions in 1821 and 1825 of the Gossain Than plants are 
correct, the yellow flower-colour of Royle’s plant separates it 
Himal. i (1839), 259, 260, t. 64,f. 2. Royle’s book was issued 
aa san ete aae of publication of of this figure would be earlier than that cited, 
Mhich is the gpg. the titegage. Issue of the later parts of the work was 
ee 
