BALFOUR—NEW SPECIES OF RHODODENDRON. 309 
SuB-SERIES B. 
Scales of the under-leaf indumentum contiguous grey or pale 
brown, surface punctulate with a few darker scales. 
This sub-series of the Lapponicums may be termed the 
punctulate. It contains :— 
Rh. alpicolum, Rehd. et Wils. 
Rh. diacritum, Balf. f. et W. W. Sm 
Rh. drumonium, Balf. f. et Ward. 
Rh. nigropunctatum, Franch. 
Rh. pycnocladum, Balf. f. et W. W. Sm. 
Rh. telmateium, Balf. f. et W. W. Sm. 
Rh. thymifolium, Maxim. 
These are all I believe near allies, with perhaps the exception 
of Rh. pycnocladum, which I place here because it shows the 
character by which all the others are marked—contiguous 
scales of the under-leaf indumentum with punctulation. This 
character is an easily recognised one, and I am sure will be 
of use to cultivators in identifying their plants. There is one 
other plant which shows the character—the Himalayan Rh. 
nivale, Hook. f.,—but I do not include it here because its habit 
and other features show it is not really an ally of these other 
species. It is better taken in a section of high alpines, to 
which I refer hereafter. The fundamental character of 
punctulation gave origin to Franchet’s naming of Rh. nigro- 
punctatum. All the species in this group are small shrublets with 
erect thin twigs and small ovate, or elliptic, or oblong, or lanceolate 
leaves. Rh. pycnocladum is an exception, being a cushion shrub, 
after the fashion of Rh. impeditum and its fellows. The ground- 
work of under-leaf indumentum is composed of uniform con- 
tiguous shining scales which give a greyish or yellowish-grey or 
pale leather-coloured tint to the whole surface, and upon it the 
brown punctulations show up. Rh. pycnocladum has a bright 
brown ground-work. The trusses are invariably 1-flowered, and 
the corolla always of a tint of rose-violet to violet and purple, is 
lepidote in more than half of them—Rh. diacritum, Rh. dru- 
montium, Rh. polycladum, Rh. telmatetum. The stamens are 10 
(8-10 in Rh. alpicolum and Rh. drumonium) and always along 
with the style exserted. In two species only is the glabrous 
style (hairy in Rh. alpicolum) shorter than the stamens, namely, 
Rh. alpicolum and Rh. thymifolium, 
KEY TO THE SPECIES. 
1. Corolla lepidote ‘ é ° . . 2 
Corolla elepidote i 3 é é E 5. 
2. Style glabrous, equalling stainens é M .  drumonium. 
Style glabrous, longer than stamens: . ‘ ‘ 
