tEfje EfioJjobentnron ^ocietp ^otesf, 
ARBOREUM hybrids), you have the thick, succulent, tomentose leaf derived from 
the Indian stock. Somewhat flimsy, on the other hand, but copious and wind- 
withstanding, is the leafage derived from R. ponticum, which asserts its presence 
in some of our best whites. Paler, blunter, rounder leaves, with revolute edges, 
speak of catawbiense and caucasicum blood, the former predominating in many 
of our hardiest favourites, and the latter generally imparting a very short petiole, 
and a dwarf and early habit. 
R. MAXIMUM may manifest its influence by viscid stalks, a tight truss, leaves 
curiously curled together in frosty weather, and an uncomfortable habit of 
prematurely thrusting up its leaf-shoots among the blossoms. 
Traces of campanulatum’s densely tomentose leaf (the species was selling 
some forty years ago at five guineas the plant), are to be found in some gardens. 
These and such-like discriminations may perhaps appear rather too nice and 
speculative in view of the complicated crossing and re-crossing, which has taken 
place among our modern Rhododendrons. Nevertheless no speculations are 
misplaced which, in the multitude of our hybrids, make us think of the species 
whence they come, and lend a charm to our travels wherever Rhododendrons 
are found wild, even on such beaten tracks as near Gibraltar, and the countries 
in the neighbourhood of Constantinople. In those two spots—or, to speak more 
correctly, at the two ends of the Mediterranean basin, and nowhere else between 
(a fact commented on by M. A. de Candolle as “ un fait curieux et d’une tres 
grande importance pour la geographie botanique ”), R. ponticum appears under 
diverse forms and names. On searching the authorities, say from the plate of 
Pallas downwards, and examining herbaria and living plants, a host of interesting 
questions arises which one longs some day to solve on the spot. So is it with 
the North American R. maximum and catawbiense, after a study of Pursh 
and Bigelow and Asa Gray, etc. ; and so is it still more with the puzzling R. 
CAUCASICUM, of which so many shams are in cultivation ; but the greatest subject 
of our would-be travels and researches is not reached until we arrive at the vast 
range of that last but mightiest factor, the grand R. arboreum. Of this, for 
the present, I must say no more than that, as I apprehend its prodigious range 
and its numberless forms, I am persuaded that its history has yet to be written. 
Along the west and east Himalayan slopes, through the Khasya Hills, on the 
Nilgherries, in Ceylon, in Assam and Burmah, this species shows its glowing 
fireball now to the eternal snows and now almost to the plains. But more of this, 
I hope, anon. 
Before concluding, one last word for Mr. Waterer’s plants. We owe him 
infinite thanks for the new phase of beauty which they have furnished for our 
gardens and our woods. With their aid many a barren hungry spot has this 
year been blossoming like the Rose, and while the species have been damaged by 
the winter, the hybrids have laughed Boreas to scorn. Nor let the jealous 
botanists complain of the mixing and confusion of the species. 
Depend upon it that he who intelligently cultivates hybrids, or raises hybrids, 
will be often thinking, both at home and abroad, of the specific types ; from 
species he will probably rise to genera, from genera to the whole science of 
Botany, and perhaps contribute some day to extend its triumphs and its truths. 
J. H. M. 
95 
