ENUMERATION OF THE SPECIES 83 



This little known species has a very curious distribution. On the island of 

 Shikoku it is common round Kochi in Tosa province but does not grow on the 

 mainland of Kyushu, but it is found on the adjacent islands of Amakusa and Goto 

 south and west of Nagasaki. I do not know whether it grows on the island of 

 Tsushima in the Japan Sea — probably it does — but it is common on the Korean 

 island of Quelpaert although unknown on the mainland of Korea. In Shikoku I 

 found it to be fairly plentiful from near sea-level up to an altitude of 800 m. 

 growing in thickets and open woods. On Hallai-san, an extinct volcano on Quel- 

 paert Island, between 200 and 1000 m. altitude, and especially in thickets by the 

 sides of water-courses and on old lava flows, it is common. 



This Azalea is a vigorous growing shrub from 1 to 5 m. tall, often decidedly 

 tree-like in habit, with moderately stout ascending to spreading often whorled 

 branches. These are yellow-brown, clothed with ferrugineous tomentum when 

 young, becoming glabrous, gray and finally dark purple in color. The winter-buds 

 are characteristic, being conic and subacute and clothed with yellow-brown, 

 matted and straight hairs and are unlike those of other species. The leaves are 

 distinctly petiolate, chartaceous, shining green and deciduous, changing to vinous 

 purple in the autumn; on the vigorous shoots the leaves are scattered and in pairs 

 or whorls but on the branchlets they are clustered in whorls of 3, or in pairs; 

 they vary from broad-ovate to semiorbicular or to rhombic, and in size from 3.5 

 to 8 cm. long and from 2 to 6 cm. wide; they are abruptly subacute or obtuse at the 

 apex which is mucronate, the base is broadly cuneate or rounded. The principal 

 veins are impressed above and slightly raised on the lower surface which is 

 venulose. When young the petioles and both surfaces of the leaf are covered 

 with rufous-brown pilose hairs but these soon disappear. The flowers are from 

 2 to 4 in terminal umbels, and open before or at the same time as the leaves 

 unfold. The pedicels, calyx and ovary are densely clad with rufous-brown pilose 

 hairs. The corolla is red, almost brick-red, from 3.5 to 6 cm. across, funnel- 

 shape, with a rather narrow expanding tube and spreading lobes. The calyx is 

 merely a ring with five minute teeth. The stamens vary from 6 to 10, and are 

 of unequal length, and like the curved style and its capitate stigma are in- 

 cluded. The fruit is cylindric or oblong-ovoid, from 1.5 to 2 cm. long, oblique, 

 furrowed and obtusely angled and clothed with appressed, villose pubescence. 

 This species was discovered on the Goto Islands in 1853 by Dr. Heinrich Wey- 

 rich, a surgeon on the Russian warship " Vostok " which formed part of Admiral 

 Putiatin's fleet. On Oldham's specimen the locality cited is Nagasaki but this is 

 a mistake; it probably came from the Amakusa Islands south by west of that city. 

 Makino first found it in Shikoku and Pere Faurie on Quelpaert Island. It was 

 unknown in gardens until 1914 when I sent the seeds from Shikoku to the Arnold 

 Arboretum which were distributed in America and Europe. Plants raised in this 

 Arboretum have not proved hardy but in another Massachusetts garden where 

 they have received the protection of a cold frame they have flowered. In 1917 

 I collected seeds on Quelpaert and hope that they will produce a hardier type. I 

 have never seen this Rhododendron in flower in a wild state and only a late flower 

 or two on cultivated plants. The color of the flowers is good and where it proves 

 hardy this species should be a welcome addition to gardens. 



Rhododendron reticulatum D. Don apud G. Don, Gen. Syst. III. 

 846 (1834). -De Candolle, Prodr. VII. pt. 2, 727 (1839). 



Rhododendron dilatatum Miquel in Ann. Mus. Lugd.-Bat. I. 34 (1863-64) ; 



in II. 164 (1865-66); Prol. Fl. Jap. 96 (1866-67). 

 Rhododendron rhombicum Miquel in Ann. Mus. Lugd.-Bat. II. 164 (1865-66); 

 Prol. Fl. Jap. 96 (1866-67). — Regel in Gartenfl. X. XVII. 225, t. 586 



