[Plate 4. J 



THE WHITE CUNNINGHAM RHODODENDRON. 



(RHODODENDRON CINNAMOMEUM ; VAR. CUNNINGHAMI.) 



A Hardy Evergreen Hybrid Shrub. R. cinnamomeum $, maximum 9. 



FOR the figure of this noble shrub we are indebted to Mr. George Cunningham, of the 

 Nursery, Liverpool. It is probably the best hybrid Rhododendron yet raised, not 

 possessing, indeed, the rich colours of the crimson mules, but quite as valuable to the 

 cultivator on account of its large heads of pure white, spotted blossoms. The history of 

 the plant is thus given by Mr. Cunningham in his correspondence : — 



" It was raised between Cinnamomeum and a late White Maximum, as you will at 

 once see by the foliage. It is very remarkable for its strong ribbed leaf and brown 

 unde-r-surface. The white of the flower is very pure, and the dark purple spots contrast 

 with it very beautifully. It is quite hardy, its maternal parent being the latest and 

 hardiest of all our Rhododendrons, and Cinnamomeum, the father, will stand any severity of 

 an English winter in January, but as it pushes early in the spring, it is liable to be cut 

 by our late frosts. 



" The object which I had in view in hybridising R. cinnamomeum with a pure White 

 Maximum was to improve the colour of each parent, keeping the purple spots of the 

 former, and getting a later period of flowering from the latter. In this part of the 

 kingdom the flowers from the hybrids with the Indian species and Ponticum, or Catawbiense, 

 are in three seasons out of four destroyed by late frosts; the colour also of those between the 

 true Scarlet Arboreum and the pink and purple species is diluted, and that between them 

 and Cinnamomeum, or the White Arboreum, is often of a muddy pink, turning, as the 

 flower gets old, into a dirty white. In the one I have sent you to figure, these objects 

 have been obtained — the white colour has been preserved in all its purity, and a perfect 

 hardiness also acquired. None of my plants of it have had any protection/" 



In form the leaves are exactly intermediate between the two parents. To the shape 

 of the Cinnamon Tree Rhododendron they add the convexity of R. maximum ; and the 

 downy surface of the under side is just half-way between the two. In both the mule and 

 its ? parent, the hairiness consists of numerous much entangled tubes, blunt, transparent, 



