RHODODENDRON ARBOREUM PAXTONI. 
(Mr, Paxtou's Tree Rhododendron.) 
Class. 
DECANDRIA. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
ERICACEJ3. 
Generic Character.— Calyx five-parted. Corolla 
somewhat funnel-shaped or campanulate, rarely rotate 
or five-parted, limb five-cleft, somewhat bilabiate ; 
upper lip broadest and usually spotted. Stamens five 
to ten, usually exserted, declinate ; anthers opening by 
two terminal pores. Capsule five-celled and five- 
valved ; rarely ten-celled and ten.valved, as in R. 
arboreum, with a septicidal dehiscence at the apex. 
Placentas simple, angular. Seeds compressed, scobi- 
form, winged — Don's Syst., see Mag. Bot., 1—101. 
Specific Character.— Plant an evergreen tree. 
Leaves oval-lanceolate, stalked, acute, 4—6 inches 
long, U inch broad ; above smooth and dull, with 
sunken veins, beneath silvery, with smooth, prominent, 
naked veins. Flowers terminal, clustered in a short 
raceme, proceeding from a bud covered outside with 
oblong, imbricated brown scales, which gradually 
become more acute, membranous, and silky as they 
approach the flowers, among which they are finally 
mixed, as in Enkianthus, in the form of bracts, which 
are placed singly under each flower, and are spatulate- 
lanceolate, bowed, cymbiform, white, silky, the length 
of flowers, and falling off with the flowers. Pedicels 
short, wrinkled, scurfy. Calyx short, flattish, five- 
toothed, pubescent. Corolla dark scarlet, fleshy, cam- 
panulate at the base, with five prominences, five-lobed, 
1| inch long, with rounded, wavy, emarginate lobes, of 
which the lowest are largest ; the throat covered with 
dark purple spots. Stamens ten, hypogynous, the 
length of corolla ; filaments white, fleshy, filiform. 
Anthers brown, oblong, apparently inverted, and there- 
fore opening by two pores at the end, not calcarate. 
Pollen pale yellow, globose, clustered in threes. — Lind- 
ley, in Bot. Reg., 890. 
Paxtoni.— Leaves three to four inches long, tomen- 
tose, somewhat obtuse, dull green above, ferruginous 
beneath. Flowers not seated immediately above a 
whorl of large leaves, as those of R. arboreum. Corolla 
crimson, very fleshy, campanulate, three inches long, 
and the same in diameter when expanded ; and the 
throat very indistinctly spotted. 
This very magnificent variety of R. arboreum is a native of the East Indies, 
where it was discovered in 1837, by Mr. John Gibson, His Grace the Duke of 
Devonshire's collector. It grew in elevated situations on the Khoseea Hills, forming 
a spreading tree of considerable beauty. It produced its splendid flowers for the 
first time in the greenhouse at Chatsworth, in the spring of 1844, being then a very 
small plant. This spring it has again flowered, when our drawing was made. 
It succeeds best when potted in turfy heath-mould, with good drainage, and is 
easily propagated by layers or grafting on the stock of R. ponticum. It requires the 
shelter of the greenhouse, and in every other respect exactly the treatment of 
R. arboreum. 
The generic name is derived from rliodon a rose, and dendron a tree ; arboreum 
describes its tree-like habit of growth, and the name of this variety is given by 
Mr. Gibson, the discoverer. 
