EJe 3l^tJo«5obenbron ^ocietp ^otes: 
Gardeners’ Chronicle, April 9 th , 1881. 
What shall I say of R. Dalhousi^, named after the unfortunate Lady 
Dalhousie,* who died of sea sickness on her voyage home from India ? The large 
scented flowers, often compared with the white Lily, L. candidum, command 
universal admiration ; but then the habit of the plant is frequently so bad, so 
leggy, and so shapeless, that people tire of growing it. The reason of the habit 
is well explained by the frontispiece to Sir J. Hooker’s Sikkim Rhodo¬ 
dendrons, where the plant is seen as an epiphyte on the branches of a tree, 
stretching out to reach the light. Alter the habitat, and you may perhaps 
modify the habit. 
As a fact I have seen many specimens of R. Dalhousie, shapely and fairly 
compact, and in a few more generations of plants we may probably reap the fuller 
result of terrestrial cultivation. 
Several other Himalayan Rhododendrons, as distinguished from the Malayan 
species, often grow as epiphytes, although Focke seems ignorant of the fact. 
R. Edgeworthii, pendulum, and Nuttallii are instances ; whereas on 
R. CAMPYLOCARPUM an Orobanche in turn grows parasitically. 
R. Dalhousie is comparatively familiar to the Anglo-Indian, for it is one of 
the four species which grow in the vicinity of Darjeeling. This is probably the 
species which Colonel Godwin Austen saw growing on trees in parts of Assam. 
In the Himalayan Journals,! we And the following description: “On the 
branches of a Magnolia, and on those of Oaks and Laurels, R. DALHOUSi.aE grows 
epiphytically, a slender shrub bearing from three to six white lemon-scented 
bells, 4-| inches long, and as many broad, at the end of each branch. In the same 
woods R. ARBOREUM is Very scarce, and is outvied by the great R. argenteum, 
which grows as a tree 40 feet high, with magnificent leaves 12 to 15 inches long, 
deep green, wrinkled above and silvery below, while the flowers are as large as 
those of R. Dalhousie, and grow more in a cluster. I know nothing of the kind 
that exceeds in beauty the flowering branch of R. argenteum vdth its wide- 
spreading foliage and glorious mass of flowers.’’ It suffices to say, in passing, 
that R. Dalhousi^e, under cultivation, has improved upon this description, 
whereas R. argenteum has fallen short. But of this latter I shall have more 
to notice presently. 
Here is another description of R. Dalhousie : “ Epiph 3 d;es were rarer ’’ 
(at Pacheem, near Darjeeling, at an elevation of nearly 7,300 feet), “ stiU I found 
white and purple Coelogynes and other Orchids, and a most noble white Rhodo¬ 
dendron, whose truly enormous and delicious lemon-scented blossoms strewed 
the ground.’’ 
* Susan, wife of first Marquis of Dalhousie, Gov.-Gen. of India, 1847—56. 
She died 6th May, 1853. 
t Vol. I., p. 126. 
74 
