BALFOUR—NEW SPECIES OF RHODODENDRON, 75 
“The corolla, which has 5 lobes. 
“The stamens, which are 10. 
“ The crustaceous layer which appears on the under-leaf sur- 
face of some Rhododendrons is often only the lower stratum of a 
true tomentum, but in Rh. sanguineum as well as in Rh. lacteum 
and some others the woolly indumentum is really absent.” 
In the specimens of Soulié’s collecting which are in our 
herbarium there is not evidence of two characters of the in- 
florescence recorded by Franchet—the loosely congested flowers 
and the large number of flowers. As in all Forrest’s specimens 
the flowers form an open spreading umbel and are never more 
than 3-4 in number in each umbel. The difference is not 
perhaps of importance. . 
More important is a criticism of the calyx-character given 
by Franchet. Rh. sanguineum and all its allies have a well- 
developed calyx, but the examination of dried material may 
easily mislead one to the belief expressed in “ calyx-lobes 
scarcely developed,’’ because the calyx-lobes are apparently 
deciduous or at least shrivel as the flower matures and are 
easily rubbed off, leaving only the calyx-cup with an irregular 
notching of its rim. This in default of specimens showing the 
history of development may fairly be described in Franchet’s 
terms, for in dried specimens the recognition of the notches of 
the calyx-rim as scars of fallen lobes is difficult and at best 
somewhat uncertain. The material now supplied by Forrest 
of Rh. sanguineum and of its allies enables me to arrive at 
the correct interpretation of the construction, and establishes 
the calyx-character here as one of particular interest and 
value in the determination of phyletic relationships. The fact 
that in the note to his description Franchet uses the calyx- 
character as defined by him for one of the distinctions between 
Rh. sanguineum and Rh. haematodes does not vitiate the main 
point of the note—recognition of likeness to and of differ- 
ence from Rh. haematodes. The calyx in the two species 1s 
almost 2 cm. long. In 
incision of the lobes. 
developments parallel with those to w 
* Franch. in Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr., xxxiii (1886), 232. 
+ Id. Lc. xxxiv (1887), 280. 
These variations are of mterest as 
hich reference has been 
