^fjobolicntjron ^ocittp ^otesi. 
At Messrs; 
Backhouse’s, 
York. 
have many more Rhododendrons which well deserve notice, and among others 
a seedling hybrid with scented leaves, the blossoms of which were kindly sent to 
me here, but arrived, unfortunately, in too imperfect a condition to enable me to 
judge of their excellence. 
Before my pen leaves Scotland, let me thank Mr. Henry Knight for his 
remarks on hybrid Rhododendrons, and their powers of endurance. I hope 
before long to furnish my readers with a list of the hardiest of the hardy hybrids. 
I, too, have been astonished this spring to observe the glorious scarlets and 
purples and whites offering so brilliant a display. 
On my return South, I visited Messrs. Backhouse’s Nurserj' at York, and 
it was interesting to find that Mr. Backhouse, too, had a strong taste for Rhodo¬ 
dendrons, but the Alpine species were naturally his special hobby. He was 
anxious to learn all about R. fulgens, which was growing, though not 
blooming, on his rockery, and in a private comer he showed me young plants of 
R. CHRYSANTHUM, that veiy rare yeUow species. This seemed the ver}' place 
for the Himalayan Alpine kinds, such as R. nivale and R. pumilum, and other 
tiny beauties to thrive in company with R. Cham^cistus and the weU-knovTi 
Roses des Alpes, of which I bought a white variety. From these reminders 
of the abodes of snow I stepped into a house, and found before me an unusually 
fine plant of R. Veitchianum, which carried me at once to the tropics, so truly 
catholic is this genus and so calculated to interest every type of horticulturist 
with some one or more of its 130 (see Gener.4. Plantarum) known species ! 
J. H. M. 
88 
