14 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



short flowering season. Like Lobelia radicans it should be easily intro- 

 duced from seed. 



Lysichiton kamschatcense. — A most majestic aroid, akin to Syfnjilo- 

 carpus, and distributed widely in very marshy places throughout Northern 

 Japan, the adjacent continent, and North- Western Canada. The flowers 

 are produced almost stemless before the leaves, and are of the shape, size, 

 and colour of Calla athiopica. After their decay the plant sends up a 

 sheaf of immense leaves, recalling the foliage of Musa Ensete, though 

 borne only upon short stems. This species is undoubtedly hardy, and 

 will certainly be the glory of our bog-gardens when introduced. My own 

 plants all died of the heat in Central Japan before I could take steps to 

 send them across. 



Rhododendron dilatatum. — Japanese rhododendrons of the Azalea 

 section are so numerous as to present great difficulties of identification. 

 Nor are they well represented in the Shoufou and the Sokou Soussets. 

 But the species 1 am about to describe appears closest to B. dilatatum. 

 Despite its most astonishing beauty, it has never come into general 

 culture. The plant is an alpine species, being found on the mountains 

 behind Nikko. between 3,000 and 3,500 feet, keeping most strictly to 

 that level, so that it makes a solid and regular band of colour upon 

 the mountain-sides, and a cap to the lesser hills. It grows in lcose 

 vegetable soil, and appears to enjoy thrusting its roots among the rocks. 

 It has never been found possible to cultivate this plant at lower and 

 warmer levels in Japan. It forms a loose -growing shrub, after the habit 

 of Corylus Avellana, reaching a maximum height of ten or twelve feet. 

 The flowers appear before the leaves, and are not produced in any great 

 number until the plant has reached a certain age and size. They are 

 borne in pairs on very distinct pedicels, and present a lovely contrast to 

 the silver whiteness of the bark. They are very large in size, campanulate, 

 unspotted, and of the most brilliant soft rose colour, which has none of 

 the brassy or purple tint that so often appears in other species, but is of 

 so absolutely pure a pink that from a distance one naturally mistakes the 

 shrub for some wild peach or cherry of rich colour. If this plant can 

 ever be introduced into cultivation, it would soon take rank among the 

 most beautiful of shrubs, its love of cool air and high elevations giving 

 good hope that it would be satisfied with our English climate. 



Cypripcdium macranthum vcntricosum. — This species is not suffi- 

 ciently known. To my mind it is by far the most beautiful of all 

 the cypripediums, hardy or hothouse. Its colour is more intense than 

 that of spectabile, and its whole appearance is infinitely more noble. 

 The flowers are larger, the petals and dorsal sepal long and pointed, 

 sweeping away from the lip in finely waving curves that make its whole 

 aspect far more dignified and refined than that of the rather dumpy- 

 blossomed spectabilc. The plant is found all over the higher downs of 

 Japan, as for instance over the open spaces round the feet of Fuji-yama. 

 It luxuriates in very loose and fine volcanico-vegetable soil, and in a 

 light friable loam, and with abundant drainage should prove a valuable 

 introduction into general English culture. Albino and biflowered 

 specimens occur, though rarely, and the plant is a varietal form of the 

 Asiatic C. macranthum. 



