CHINESE TREES AND SHRUBS. 



221 



shown that in the western and south-western regions of that country 

 there is the greatest aggregation of species on the globe. At the 

 present time i6o different species of Rhododendron are known to 

 exist in China, and of these Wilson has introduced at least sixty in 

 a living state. 



Their value to gardens is evident in several respects. In the 

 first place, they enable those of us whose gardens are not situated 

 in Cornwall, South Wales, Ireland, or in places with a similar cUmate, 

 to grow Rhododendrons of a type approaching the large-leaved 

 Himalayan ones. Such species as R. auriculatum, sutchuenense, 

 calophytum, discolor, Fargesi, SouUei, and orbiculare represent types 

 of Rhododendron which, previous to their introduction, could only 

 be seen growing in the open air in our mildest counties. 



Another interesting quality pertaining to some of Wilson's 

 Rhododendrons is the yellow colour of the flowers. A really fine 

 yellow Rhododendron is one of the greatest desiderata of gardens. 

 Imagine one with a truss like the variety ' Cynthia ' or fastuosum, 

 and flowers of a genuine golden or buttercup yellow ! I do not know 

 of any Chinese Rhododendron that approaches that ideal, but I believe 

 there are others to be introduced, or at any rate brought into flower, 

 of a finer yellow than any we have seen. The most charming of 

 Wilson's yellow species is, I think, R. flavidum — a delightful dwarf 

 shrub whose flowers are primrose-yellow (Fig. 49). Other yellow ones 

 are ambiguum and lutescens, both somewhat anaemic in hue, but 

 worth growing. 



A very pleasing group of Rhododendrons is that of the dwarf- 

 growing ones suitable for the rock garden. This group has been 

 most attractively increased by the introduction of species like intri- 

 catum, nigro-punctatum, fastigiatum, moupinense (shown at this Hall 

 in flower by Miss Willmott last February) (Fig. 31), and R. flavidum y 

 already referred to. The hidden stamens, so characteristic of intricatum, 

 are seen also in the Himalayan anthopogon. 



Speaking of Wilson's Rhododendrons as a whole, they have brought 

 many new and charming types into our gardens, and they appear 

 to be mostly hardy. Their chief defect in many parts of the country 

 will be in flowering too early in spring to escape frost. The hardiest 

 of them are undoubtedly the small-leaved group, whose leaves and 

 young shoots are more or less covered with scales. These Rhodo- 

 dendrons cover great areas on the mountains of Western China to 

 the exclusion of nearly all other shrubs, and fill the same place in the 

 flora there that such things as Heather and Gorse do here. Some of 

 the best of them are racemosum, yunnanense, and Augustinii. The 

 broad-leaved ones, Mr. Wilson teUs me, usually inhabit the margins 



I of forests in semi-shade. 

 I Meliosma is a curious out-of-the-way genus which has been repre- 

 lented in gardens by a single species only — introduced by Maries 

 pom Japan in 1879, and too tender to get into general cultivation. 

 IViLSON has introduced several other species, of which the only one 



