Ziit 3^totiobeni)ron ^ocietp ^otesi. 
Seed of this Rhododendron reached England for the first time in the spring 
of 1850, and to the astonishment of everybody a plant bloomed in March, 1853. 
This circumstance marks the fact of the amenability of R. Dalhousi.® to forcing. 
Alternate hot and cold were applied to the seedling, and finally inarching on 
R. PONTICUM, and the blossoms produced were first-rate. The German writer 
mentioned above accounts for the comparative neglect of hybrids among Indian 
Rhododendrons by pointing to the great variety of true species. He might have 
added the extreme beauty of many of these, although not of all (for some, to be 
presently mentioned, are singularly plain). It may almost seem, for instance, a 
profanation to think of refining the ineffable delicacy of R. Veitchianum, or 
gilding the golden glory of R. javanicum, and yet I do not envy the cultivator 
who has no ambition to leave his own mark among his flowers, for the sake of 
science as well as for his own. But the truth is that Rhododendrons do not, as 
a rule, easily submit to hybridising. Hundreds of experiments have utterly 
failed with me, and, among others, I have not yet persuaded R. DALHOUSiiE 
to bear seed under the influence of foreign pollen, but the other way the cross 
has been often effected. 
The first view I had of R. Dalhousi^ was many years ago, when a flowering 
branch arrived from the garden of a friend in Scotland, and it is in Scotland still 
that Sikkim Rhododendrons are chiefly worshipped. 
Miss Walker’s Rhododendron Almanac was compiled in Scotland, and many 
private collections nowadays compete with hers. The Messrs. Dickson, of 
Edinburgh, grew innumerable trusses of R. DALHOUsm (see the Journals 
of bygone years). The Gardeners’ Chronicle recorded the other day the 
triumph of Messrs. Downie & Laird, and my friend, Mr. Anderson-Henry, may 
be said to have made Edinburgh the Mecca of the Faithful, to which we aU turn 
when we think of our favourite flower. Mr. Henry earned the very rare 
distinction of having a hybrid he raised between R. Dalhousi^ and R. formosum 
figured in the Botanical Magazine.* If I remember rightly. Sir J. Hooker 
wrote to say that the hybrid (and such it undoubtedly was) reproduced the 
native type of flower better than the true-bred seedling of R. Dalhousi^. I 
have plants and plates of both the flowers before me as I write, and the hybrid 
is undoubtedly an acquisition. Unlike many hybrids, R. “ Henryanum ” 
(formosum X Dalhousi.®) so named in the trade, is not barren. With the 
pollen of R. Nuttallii it has produced a very grand flower, and with that of 
R. Veitchianum another grand flower of a very different type. Indeed the 
peculiarity of the hybrid progeny of R. Dalhousi^ would seem to be 
their fertility. R. “ Countess of Haddington ” is a hybrid between R. 
Dalhousi.® and R. ciliatum, and has proved fertile. I have raised seedlings 
from this hybrid, and have now bursting into bloom a seedling raised by Mr. 
Parker, of Tooting, named R. “ magniflorum,” bred, I am assured, from 
“ Countess of Haddington ” fertilized with pollen of R. Edgeworthii. It 
should be observed that there are various types of R. Dalhousi®; in cultivation ; 
in some the flowers are inferior, greenish, or dirty yellow, in others the bad 
* Plate 5322. 
75 
