twigs, which were sparingly leafy at the end. The leaves are 
small, 1-1 f inches in length, oblong-oval, acute, dark green, ru- 
gosely veined, paler and sparingly lepidote beneath, slightly ci¬ 
liated, and having short lepidote footstalks. The flowers, which 
are about two inches in diameter, and grow in small terminal 
clusters of two to three together, are attached by scurfy pedi¬ 
cels, and are of a light rosy-lilac colour ; the calyx divided 
into five short rounded ciliated lobes; the corolla about two 
inches in diameter, forming a shallow expanded almost rotate 
cup, self-coloured, with five rounded overlapping and slightly 
undulated regular lobes. They are furnished with ten unequal 
stamens, which are slightly decimate; and a style which is 
about twice as long as the stamens, very prominent, and termi¬ 
nating in a capitate obscurely 5-lobed stigma. 
The plant is evidently of a very floriferous habit, very small 
specimens, with three or four shoots producing as many flower- 
heads. In the open ground, as we learn from Mr. Davies, the 
flowers expand about the end of March; but the chief value of 
the variety will probably be found to consist in its capabilities 
as a forcing plant, or rather, as an early-flowering plant, since 
its blossoms are developed at an early period with a very slight 
amount of stimulus; so little indeed is needed, that Mr. Davies 
states that a succession of flowers might be had all the winter 
by means of houses of varied temperature. We learn also that 
not even a green-fly will live upon the plant, on account of a 
peculiar odour in its foliage which it inherits from its mother. 
There is no doubt that this is a true cross-bred plant, the ob¬ 
vious characters and aspect of the two parents being blended in 
those of the variety. There are some slightly varying forms, as 
represented in our Plate, where No. 1 is yroecox , No. 2 is prcecox 
rubrum , and No. 3 is jprascox superbum; but the differences which 
consist in the size and tints of the flowers are not very marked, 
at least, in the examples we have seen. The plant requires the 
treatment of the dwarf small-growing hardy Rhododendrons, 
and should be grown in peat soil. 
