i^ljoliotienbron ^ocietp ^otesl. 
Gardeners’ Chronicle, July bth, 1879. 
In my last I described Messrs. Veitch’s new strain of Rhododendrons, and 
explained that the two species first used as parents were R. jasminiflorum as 
pollen-parent and R. javanicum as seed-bearing parent. 
Later on Mr. Taylor mingled the blood of two other species in the strain, 
viz., R. Lobbii (named after Mr. Lobb, the collector for Messrs. Veitch), and 
R. Brookeanum (named after the well-known Rajah Brooke, of Sarawak). 
These two species, as will be seen, are stated to be closely allied with 
R. JAVANICUM. 
In devoting a few words to their description I am merely, so to say, going 
over the ground I myself traversed when I admitted their progeny into the list 
of my favourites. 
As there was, and is, very great difficulty in procuring, or even in seeing the 
blossoms of the parents, I wished to find plates and accounts of what had produced 
so much beauty, and, as fond friends do, to trace the features of the parents in 
the children, or to marvel at the differences. I am bound to confess that I have 
never yet seen in the flesh the flowers of either R. Lobbii or R. Brookeanum, 
nor do I know where they are to be seen. Dried specimens of Rhododendrons 
are wholly unsatisfactory. 
R. Lobbii is mentioned in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, of October 14th, 
1871, as a brilliantly flowered stove shrub, with bright crimson flowers, intro¬ 
duced from Borneo by Messrs. Veitch & Sons. It is figured in the Floral 
Magazine, plate 10, and is there depicted of a bright yellow colour ; but 
Messrs. Veitch have two coloured representations of the plant they used in 
breeding, one painted for them by Mr. Chandler, and the other in one of their 
own catalogues. 
In these the flowers are red, and not very showy, and in size approaching 
nearer to R. jasminiflorum than R. javanicum. In Regel’s Gartenflora, 
Vol. X., R. Lobbianum is thus spoken of : “ Dieser schbne Strauch mit gelber 
Blume steht in der Mitte zwischen R. javanicum und R. Brookeanum und 
wurde sogar Anfangs nur als eine Varietat dieser letzten Art betrachtet. Th. 
Moore halt sie jedoch fiir eine gute Art ” (stands between R. javanicum and 
R. Brookeanum). (The R. Lobbianum, Moore, Floral Magazine, F.IO (1861), 
is not the same as the red-flowered plant alluded to in the above paragraph. 
It was exhibited by Messrs. Veitch as R. Brookeanum flavum, but being judged 
distinct, was named R. Lobbianum when figured. How another plant came to 
be so called we cannot tell, but the latter was never published. At the time of 
the appearance of these hybrids, this bright red small-flowered plant was said to 
be an unnamed species from Borneo.—I. Moore). 
R. Brookeanum is figured in various quarters; in the Gardeners’ 
Chronicle, for February 25th, 1871, and the Journal of the Horti¬ 
cultural Society of London, Vol. III., p. 81, uncoloured ; and in the 
Botanical Magazine, Vol. LXXXIL, tab. 4935, and elsewhere, coloured. 
57 
