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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cataivbiense are well known to do, yet, so far as I have seen, all Rhodo- 

 dendrons appear to like the same treatment — cool, peaty, or loamy soil in 

 which the plant can shade its own roots. 



I have no peat, but loamy earth and leaf-mould will supply all my 

 plants require. 



The prolongation of the blooming season of our favourite plant is 

 surely an object worth aiming at. "We all do it, Rosarians, Chrysanthe- 

 mists, Carnation growers, and all others. 



Most of the Himalayan species bloom in March and April, and so, 

 beginning with the hybrid classes of Nobleamim and Jacksoni, which 

 commence blooming in November and December and continue till the 

 spring, the first species to come out is barbatum, so called from the 

 hairy petiole of the leaf. 



Barbatum is apparently the only species which has the peculiarity of 

 bristles on the petiole of the leaf. This character gives the species its 

 name, and though they are occasionally absent, so also are they some- 

 times present not only on the leaf-stem but all over the young wood of 

 the year. The blossoms develop in February and they are at their best 

 throughout the month of March, the truss being rather closely packed with 

 flowers and of a fine blood-red colour. It is followed in March by Thom- 

 soni, a favourite species, and by a variety or hybrid called Campbelli, 

 which has created some discussion, for the sort usually known in gardens 

 as Campbelli appears to be not the variety of arboreum to which Sir 

 Joseph Hooker gave that name, but a plant fairly intermediate between 

 arboreum album and camjia aula turn, possibly a hybrid between these 

 species, and which in the leaf seems to me to favour the probability of 

 campanulatum being, if anything, the predominant partner. 



Many species of Rhododendron from the Himalayas are worth 

 cultivating for the foliage alone, the lower side of each leaf being 

 covered with a rich led, brown, or white tomentum, the size and shape 

 of each leaf varying with the particular species, and attaining in the case 

 of Falconcri to a very large size, and as the plants attain size and height 

 the effect of colour on the foliage under the winter sun is very beautiful 

 and striking, even at that season of the year. 



The species which habitually bloom well with me unprotected, and 

 really seem to thrive, are arboreum (red, white or pink); barbatum; 

 Thomsoni ; grandc ; Falconcri and its var. eximium ; niveum ; 

 campanula-turn ; campylocarpum ; Griffithianum or Aucklandii ; ciliatum ; 

 Campbelli ; glaucum ; sctosum ; Anthopogou ; cinnabarinum ; triflorum. 



I have flowered under shelter. Dalhousice, Edgcicorthii, Maddeni, 

 Xuttalli, and formosum ; and I have got but have not flowered Hodgsoni 

 and fulgens, which I believe to be hardy. 



The authorities by which I prefer to be guided in this paper are Sir 

 "\Yilliaru and Sir Joseph Hooker in their work on the Rhododendrons of 

 the Sikkim Himalayas, 1849, beautifully but very inadequately illus- 

 trated, and Sir Joseph Hooker's excellent " Flora of British India," 1884 ; 

 Messrs. Nicholson and Thomson's books ; and last, not least, our 

 excellent secretary Mr. Cook's " Trees and Shrubs for English Gardens." 



In the third volume of Sir Joseph Hooker's " Flora of British India " 

 will be found 94 species and synonyms of the genus Bhododcndron ; of 



