80 THE AZALEAS OF THE OLD WORLD 



XXVI. 23 (1889); in Kew Bull. Misc. Inform. 1907, 245. — Dunn 

 & Tutcher in Kew Bull. Misc. Inform, add. ser. X. 155 (Fl. Kwang- 

 tung and Hongk.) (1912). — Millais, Rhodod. 163 (1917). 



Azalea squamata Lindley in Jout. Hort. Soc. Lond. I. 152 (1846); in Bot. Reg- 

 XXXIII. t. 3 (1847). — Walpera, Ann. I. 481 (1848-49). — Bentham, Fl- 

 Hongk. 201 (1861). 



Azalea Farrerae K. Koch, Dendr. II. pt. 1, 178 (1872). — O. Kuntze, Rev. 

 Gen. pt. 2, 387 (1891). 



Azalea squamosa O. Kuntze, Rev. Gen. pt. 2, 387 (1891), as a synonym. 



Rhododendron Farrerae S. typicum Diela in Bot. Jahrb. XXIX. 514 (1900). 



China: prov. Kwangtung, Loh-fau-san, August 21, 1917, C. 0. 

 Levine (ex Canton Christian College Herb. No. 1533). 



This species seems to be peculiar to Hongkong and the neighboring islands 

 and to the adjacent parts of Kwangtung province. It is a low, densely branched 

 shrub with short, rigid, shining brown, verticillate branchlets clothed with ap- 

 pressed, straight and villose hairs when young, becoming glabrous and gray in 

 their second year. The leaves are crowded, usually in threes at the end of the 

 branches, subcoriaceous, deciduous or semi-persistent, glabrescent, ovate, from 



2 to 3 cm. long and from 1.2 to 2 cm. wide, acute or sub-acute, with a short mucro, 

 and a rounded base; they are dark green above and pallid below, reticulate, with 

 the principal veins impressed above and raised below. The petioles are from 1 to 



3 mm. long and densely villose. The winter-buds are small, broadly ovoid, and 

 are densely clothed with gray or rufous pubescence. The flowers appear before 

 the leaves unfold, either solitary or in pairs at the end of the branches. The corolla 

 is pale to deep rose-color with red-purple spots, from 4 to 5 cm. in diameter; it has 

 a short, narrow, funnel-shape tube and spreading, undulate lobes. The ring-like 

 calyx is minutely 5-toothed, and pubescent; and the pedicel and ovary are thickly 

 clothed with appressed and villose, ferrugineous or gray hairs. The stamens are 

 from 8 to 10 of unequal length and shorter than the corolla, and are equalled or 

 slightly overtopped by the slender, curved style. The fruit is conic-ovoid, from 

 0.5 to 1.5 cm. long and from 0.8 to 1 cm. in diameter and densely villose, and 

 is borne on a stout, curved, villose pedicel about 1 cm. long. 



I have seen this Azalea growing wild in Hongkong and as Hemsley has pointed 

 out it is a very distinct species. It is characterized by its small, ovate leaves, its 

 very short villose petioles and by its relatively large fruit. It was first introduced 

 into England in 1829, by Captain Farrer of the East India Company's ship " Or- 

 well." It was reintroduced by Robert Fortune who in 1844 sent it to the garden 

 of the Horticultural Society of London where it flowered and was renamed by 

 Lindley. I have no knowledge of its having been in cultivation in America, and 

 Millais states that it is a rare plant in English gardens, and hardy only in the 

 south. 



Rhododendron Mariesii Hemsley and Wilson in Kew Bull. Misc. 

 Inform. 1907, 244. — Hutchinson in Bot. Mag. CXXXIV. t. 8206 

 (1908). — Schneider, III. Handb. Laubhohk. II. 496, fig. 327 1-m 

 (1909).— Rehder & Wilson in Sargent, PI. Wilson. I. 548 (1913).— 

 Bean, Trees and Shrubs Brit. Isl. II. 377 (1914). — Millais, Rhodod. 

 207 (1917). 



