COLLECTIONS OF 191 4, 
105 
boulder-tops of the alpine coppiced beck-sides on Thundercrown, 
with neat little dark metallic foliage, and lovely clusters of clear 
pale-yellow blossom in June. 
Rhododendron sp. (F 119) probably contains an admixture of the last. 
F 119 is, I think, Veitch's 1889, a universal little Rhododendron 
of the open alps, replacing heather on our own, and forming neat 
round bushes of 6-18 inches, made up of bronzy-grey, small, 
oval foliage, with the shoots ending in bunches of mauve-lavender 
flowers in June- July. 
Rhododendron sp. (F 79). — I cannot be quite certain if this has 
been sent. F 79 is a general species of the alpine coppices 
up the Border, being a very lax, straggling, erect bush or low 
tree, with large Azaleoid flowers of flaring crimson-magenta in 
April-May. 
Rhododendron sp. (F 339) abounds in the alpine coppiced glens of the 
Min S'an — a rather straggling and not specially graceful low 
tree with flower as yet unknown, and foliage felted with rust 
beneath. 
Rhododendron sp. (F 387) is a gigantic arborescent species of the 
upmost woodland zone of the Satanee range, stretching across, 
I think, to the fells of Thundercrown, where, on those drier, barer 
alps, it takes a much stunted form, growing only as a stiff bush 
of 3-4 feet, by comparison with the great lax old forest giants 
of the Chago woods, from whose aged hoary arms drop aged 
veils and films and trails of lichen, like limp tails of many 
despondent monkeys. It has large and brilliantly glossy green 
foliage ; the flower does not seem very free on the veteran 
specimens, but, so far as I could judge on Thundercrown, is pure 
white, large, and gathered into large and crowded, rather tight 
pyramidal balls of bloom. Its wood, when burned, exhales the 
most entrancing scent of Primroses ; and it ironically laughs 
at the calciphobe traditions of Rhododendron by the inordinate 
profusion with which its glistering seedlings sprout and prosper 
in nothing but sheer limestone silt and shingle, up in the highest 
reaches of the beck-beds in the Satanee Alps. 
Rodger sia aesculifolia (F 132) is perfectly magnificent in the richest, 
coolest, and darker aspects of the great Siku gorge, growing 4-5 
feet high in the corners under the cliff, with enormous metallic 
foliage and foamy-white blossom in crest over crest to the summit 
of the spumy pyramid — by far the most superb of Rodgersias 
when in such form, and completely vanquishing the utmost effort 
of Astilbe and Spiraea. It is general all over the lower alpine 
coppice of the Siku-Satanee ranges, and, above Siku, even lingers 
handsomely on hot dry hills of coarse grass, from which the 
woodland has been pitilessly cleared for many generations. 
Rosa. — The Border hedgerows swarm with innumerable briars with 
which I have not thought fit to burden anybody, as they are 
horti culturally valueless — no better than R. canina, and not as 
