Clje Etobobenbron ^otietp ^otesi. 
Gardeners’ Chronicle, June 1th, 1879. 
Mr. Anderson- 
Henry’s 
Rhododendrons. 
Size of 
pollen-tube an 
obstacle to 
pollination. 
RHODODENDRONS. 
It may perhaps interest some of your readers if I give a short account of a 
visit I recently paid to the garden of Mr. I. Anderson-Henry, the veteran horti¬ 
culturist and hybridiser of the North. 
My friendship with Mr. Henry commenced some years ago. Our love of 
Rhododendrons brought us together, and Rhododendrons were to me the principal 
attraction in his garden, although he has many other curiosities, as is well known, 
from all parts of the world, and is just now devoting his chief attention, I think, 
to Primulas. My friend’s devotion to Rhododendrons dates back as far as the 
year 1850. In 1848, Sir Joseph Hooker had discovered a new world of floral 
beauty in the Sikkim mountains, and Mr. Henry threw himself at once into the 
fascinating pursuit of rearing and hybridising. 
Rhododendron “ Henryanum ” (formosum x Dalhousi.e) was one of his 
earliest and most successful hybrids. This plant had the honour, wholly 
exceptional in the case of a hybrid, of being figured in the Botanical 
Magazine, and did much to attract attention to the new denizens of our cool 
greenhouses—scented Rhododendrons. 
Those who have not seen and studied these comparatively new floral treasures 
can have no idea of their value. Somewhat difficult of culture, they repay most 
fully the care and attention of their devotees ; and, thanks to hybridisers like 
Mr. Henry, they now present much variety as well as purity and fragrance. 
I can never forget the astonishment and delight with which I beheld for the 
first time R. calophyllum in bloom in the Temperate-house at Kew ; and 
R. Edgeworthii and R. Dalhousi^ among species, and R. “ Princess Alice ” 
(Edgeworthii X ciliatum) and R. “ Henryanum ” among hybrids are nearly 
equally glorious ; and what can be grander than an expanded truss of 
R. ARGENTEUM, or more elegant than the fringed R. ^^EITCHIANUM ? I offered a 
few years since to one of our most celebrated poets a scented Rhododendron, but 
the plant was not in bloom at the time, and a crimson hardy variety was preferred. 
The other day my friend reminded me of my offer. He had seen Princess 
Alice in bloom, and was over head and ears in love with scented Rhododendrons. 
But to return to Mr. Anderson-Henry’s plants, R. Falconeri was in fine 
bloom, and a spurious form of R. argenteujM. The former, when grown under 
glass, bears enormous leaves, but grown in the open air, as I saw it a day or two 
ago at Mr. Rogers’, of River Hill, the leaves are smaller and much less tomentose 
underneath. Mr. Henry’s fine plant bore flowers with a delicious scent, and of 
unusual size. I have never seen flowers of any hybrid from this species. 
In 1869 Mr. Standish stated that he could not cross with the pollen of 
R. Falconeri, and the reason, as he thought, was that the pollen-tubes were 
too large to penetrate to the ovules. Perhaps some of your readers can throw 
light on the subject. 
48 
