®f)e i^fjobotienliron ^ocietp ^otesi 
As you will have noticed, Rh. Nobleanum is invariably eaten by beetles. So 
marked a feature is this of the plant that at a distance you can recognise a 
Nobleanum or a plant with Nobleanum blood in it by the gnawed leaves. The 
old Jacksoni has this feature only in a limited degree, arboreum does not 
show this character markedly. Whence did Nobleanum get it ? There must 
be something particular in its leaves which has an attraction for the beetle, 
because you will find plants of Nobleanum so eaten in the midst of other 
rhododendrons which do not show a single scar. I have no data for a conclusion, 
but it seems to be likely that the character has come from the female parent of 
Nobleanum, and as the female parent of Nobleanum was a yellow caucasicum, 
and must, therefore, have been a cross between caucasicum and, I beheve, 
CHRYSANTHUM One should look for the character in those two species. I do not 
know that we have reaUy true caucasicum here, and our material of 
CHRYSANTHUM is too scant to give any data for conclusion, but I think those 
growers who have plants of caucasicum true, and of chrysanthum, should 
examine them carefully and see if either or both of them show particularly this 
feature of being gnawed by beetles. 
I do not know that my seedling caucasicum from Petrograd are certainly 
the true species, but the source gives one confidence in believing that they may be. 
I return herewith your MS, the results of the whole investigation will be most 
interesting. BAYLEY BALFOUR. 
Extract from a Letter of Mr. E. H. Wilson to Mr. J. C. Williams, 
dated ^th November, 1916. 
It is surprising to me to learn through your letter of October 14th, that 
anyone should consider Rh. chrysanthum a form of Rh. caucasicum. Rh. 
chrysanthum as I know it on the high mountains of Northern Japan, is a low 
shrub with pale yellow flowers, and I cannot see that it has anything to do vdth 
Rh. caucasicum, with its white and pink flowers as figured in Bot. Mag., tab. 
1145. As far as my studies go, I have no knowledge of any Caucasian plant 
being represented by form or variety in the flora of Eastern or North-Eastern 
Asia. 
Extract from a Letter of Mr. P. D. Williams to Mr. C. C. Eley, 
dated Uh January, 1917. 
The late Mr. Claud Daubuz, a neighbour of mine, sent the grafts of what he 
called Rh. Nobleanum venustum to Rogers, a nurser 3 Tnan, of Southampton, 
and doubtless he can supply plants. 
It is more upright than some forms of Nobleanum. This plant is the earliest 
flowering form of Rh. Nobleanum, and paler than most, assuming that it is a form 
of Nobleanum, and I group it with Nobleanum. 
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