MY SHRUBS IOI 
is tender, and retreats from its place in a peat bed when October 
comes. The beauty of the new leaves alone makes this plant a 
treasure. They are a wondrous rich old-rose colour, and retain 
their red veins until mature. The flower is white and fragrant, 
but my plant, though healthy enough, has made no blossom yet. 
It is a shy bloomer even in expert hands. R. calophyllum, another 
Bhotan species, also withdraws from the open during autumn, 
though in Cornish gardens it flourishes in sheltered glades. This 
is a grand rhododendron with lovely foliage, as the name implies. 
The white blossom is very large and fragrant with three to five 
trumpets on the truss. The species attains to no great size, and 
is easily managed in a pot. 
R. Sesterianum, a hybrid, is very splendid; but the buds 
should have protection against frost and the whole plant be given 
a snug corner. The mixture of rosy red and white make the 
fragrant trusses a great joy in May. The flower is among the 
largest of all. ‘That fine hybrid, ‘ Lady Alice Fitzwilliam,” is 
only a little less distinguished, and blooms more freely. The 
lovely R. fragrantissimum also resembles these, but is more tender, 
and should winter in a cold house. R. yunnanense, a noble and 
hardy Chinese species, has large flowers two inches across, white 
spotted crimson, or lavender and brown. R. formosum is of 
Bhotan, and tender—a fine species still rare in cultivation. 
Of dwarf varieties, R. racemosum, another Yunnan species, is a 
neat deciduous shrub, whose rosy flowers are among the earliest 
to appear; R. kamtschaticum, also deciduous, is but a few inches 
high, and demands a cool, damp, shady corner in peat. Its little 
solitary flowers are a bright purple, as large as a kalmia bloom, 
and it is rather hard to please. This year one fine blossom has 
