RHODODENDRON STANDISIIII. 
(Mr. Standish's Ross Bay.) 
Class. 
DBCANDRIA. 
Order. • 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
ERICACEAE. 
Generic Character.— Calyx five-parted. Corolla 
somewhat funnel-shaped or campanulate ; rarely ro- 
tate or five-parted ; limb five-clef t, somewhat bilabiate ; 
upper lip the broadest, and usually spotted. Stamens 
five to ten, usually exserted, declinate ; anthers open- 
ing by two terminal pores. Capsule five-celled, five- 
valved, rarely ten-celled and ten-valved, with a sep- 
ticidal dehiscence at the apex. Placentas simple, 
angular. Seeds compressed, winged. — Don. 
Standishii. — A hybrid shrub, of dwarf habit. 
All our readers are familiar with the magnificent Rhododendron arboreum of 
the Himalayan mountains, figured " Mag. Bot." Vol. i. t. 101 ; and yet, splendid as 
is that plant, it is surpassed by some of its Indian varieties. One of these (a white- 
flowering one) the R. arboreum Jimbriatum, was figured Vol. ii. t. 98, and another 
(a crimson one) the R. arboreum Paxtoni, we figured Vol. xiv. t. 99. This last, 
when in bloom, is a perfect model of beauty, and its immense trusses, when the 
flowers are fully expanded, present to the eye one continued blaze of colour. 
None of the above, however, are hardy ; and although hybrids have been raised 
between R. arboreum and some of the hardy American species, several of which are 
certainly very fine, and bear the open air of this country well, yet the season of their 
flowering is too early for our climate ; the spring frosts generally destroying the 
whole or a part of the blossoms as soon as they expand ; the young growth also very 
often becomes so damaged that few, if any, flower-buds can be perfected. 
The above reasons induced many cultivators, and amongst them Mr. John 
Staodish, of Bagshot, to try and produce a hybrid with the splendour and colour of 
R. arboreum, the hardiness of R. ponticum, and flowering late so as to escape injury 
from the spring frosts ; after making the subject his study for the last ten years he 
has happily succeeded beyond his highest expectation. His crosses have been 
betwixt the latest American sorts for the female parents, and the highest coloured 
alta-clerense for the males. This union has produced some perfectly hardy free- 
blooming and high-coloured varieties, ranging from rose to deep crimson ; and such 
free bloomers, that one only 13 inches high has at present no less than 20 flower-buds 
