67 
TREATMENT OF THE JAVANESE RHODODENDRON. 
abounds in pebbles, so much the better; if not, a few may be added with advantage to the plant. 
Where such a compost cannot be obtained, use the same as for Cape Heaths, adding rather more sand. 
The plant is rather impatient of the knife, and frequently does not break for a long time after 
pruning, where the ordinary method is adopted. To remedy this habit, examine the plant carefully 
when first placed in the heat, and if it has no appearance of becoming bushy, take a small knife and 
scoop out the central bud or buds, and allow it to break again before it is re-potted. 
When the young shoots are fully developed, and the leaves have arrived at their full size, and are 
beginning to harden, remove the plants to an airy greenhouse or cold pit, where they may remain 
through the winter ; if placed in the latter, give air daily, according to the weather. Keep the foliage 
dry, and supply water very sparingly to the roots. In the spring, as soon as the plants show 
symptoms of growth, place them in a house where the atmosphere is kept moist, with a temperature 
of 55° to 60 3 , or 5° higher in the sun ; sprinkling them daily with tepid water,—three times a-day, in 
bright sunny weather, will not be too often. They may remain in this situation till the end of May or 
beginning of June; and they should then be plunged up to the rim of the pot in an open border, where 
the sun can shine fully upon them; the spaces between the shrubs of an American border will be 
found suitable, provided they do not crowd too near. The attention now required will be to keep 
them well-watered in dry weather. The leaves will soon acquire a fine glossy surface, dark colour, 
and a leathery consistency; and if the season is mild and showery, they will not unfrequently make a 
second growth out of doors, and set flowers on the shoots so produced. The plants may remain in the 
open border until the month of September, or later if there is no appearance of frost, when they should 
be placed in a cold greenhouse for the winter as before. 
When the flower-buds are beginning to throw of their numerous scales, preparatory to opening, 
place the plant at the warmest part of the house ; they will expand all the better for it, especially if it 
be early in the season. By this method as many as twenty flowers have been produced in one head, 
all perfect, the individual flowers measuring exactly two and three-quarter inches across, of a rich 
orange-yellow, and of remarkably firm texture: the entire head formed a globular cluster, upwards of 
two feet in circumference, which continued in perfection more than a fortnight. The probability is 
that much larger heads may be obtained, as this was from a seedling of only three years age. 
There is a variety of R. javanicum, with long lanceolate leaves, which vary in size exceedingly 
on the same plant, being from two to five inches in length, and from half an inch to two inches in 
width at the widest part; it is from the same locality as the broad-leaved sort, and of much slower 
growth, but has not yet flowered. 
Although among the recently-introduced Sikkim Rhododendrons there are many splendid kinds, it 
is remarkable that yellow is a scarce colour among them. JR. lanatum R. Wightii, and two or three 
others, are of a straw colour, and R. lepidotum is described as having flowers of a dark yellow, but here 
the heads are small, and the habit is weak. Hybridists must therefore look to R. javanicum for a 
new race of hardy yellow hybrids. That these will be obtained, no one who is at all conversant with 
the history of our hardy scarlet sorts, can for a moment doubt; directly, or indirectly, these have all 
been obtained from R. arhoreum, some partaking of the character of trees, and others flowering freely 
when less than a foot in height. The hardy scarlets at the present time amount to upwards of thirty 
sorts. For the purposes of the ornamental planter, the importance of having a new and distinct colour, 
for grouping in clumps, or planting in the American border with the sorts already in cultivation, can 
scarcely be overrated. 
Whether R. javanicum will eventually prove hardy, it is difficult to say; but, if not, its progeny 
most assuredly will be. It has already been made to produce seeds in this country, hybridised with 
several leading hardy sorts, and the young plants have passed through the first six months of their 
existence. R. zeglatiicum, R. Rollissonii, and R. cinnamomeum were treated as greenhouse plants for 
very many years, but it is now satisfactorily proved that they are as hardy as the common kinds, at 
least hi the neighbourhood of London; the foliage is also much finer than when kept in-doors. R. 
cinnamomeum sets its flower buds abundantly when planted in the open border, and if taken up, and 
