j^totjoljentiron ^ocietp ^oteS. 
The Garden, September 2Uh, 1881. 
THE GARDEN FLORA. 
Plate CCCIII.— Rhododendron Aucklandii. 
(Drawn in the Temperate-house at Kew, 1881). 
Some years ago I wrote : “I would advise all Rhododendron lovers who do 
not know R. Aucklandii to lose no time in examining Sir Joseph Hooker’s book, 
and, better still, to visit Kew in May, in which month R. Aucklandii is generally 
in bloom there.” Those who followed this latter ad\'ice last May, surely found 
their reward in beholding the glorious bush, which bore the flowers figured on 
the accompanying plate. In the Temperate-house a fine collection of Himalayan 
Rhododendrons flourishes under the care of Mr. Binder, a true lover of the 
genus, and among them all none surpass, and few equal, the species named by 
Sir Joseph after Lord Auckland, once Governor-General of India, but which the 
Botanical Magazine, later on, described as a variety of R. Griffithianuji 
(Wight). (See tab. 5065.) 
I have examined in the Kew herbarium the specimens of R. Griffithianum 
(from Wight’s herbarium, from that of the late East India Company, and from 
Griffith himself, the discoverer), and although the flowers and the foliage are 
ludicrously small in comparison with our plant and the Aucklandii specimens, 
yet it is impossible not to observe a close technical resemblance. The same may 
be said of the plate in Wight’s ” Icones.” 
Whether this herbarium R. Griffithianum has ever been cultivated is very 
doubtful. I have never seen it, and my friend, Mr. Anderson-Henr\q who has 
plants labelled respectively R. Aucklandii and R. Griffithianum, writes me 
that there is no difference between them. Further, it is extremely probable that 
all the plants which have hitherto bloomed in Europe are derived from Sir 
J. Hooker’s original consignment of seed, for, although the species does grow 
within British territory, I believe with Mr. Sykes Gamble, conservator of Indian 
forests (to whom I am indebted for seed), that it is very rare and difficult to come 
by. Hence, for present horticultural purposes, we may keep out of sight 
Griffith’s inferior Bhotan plant, and also the tree, 40 feet high, from which Mr. 
C. B. Clarke, the eminent Indian botanist, gathered specimens. With Sir J. 
Hooker this species is always a bush. He found it in two different localities 
at least, in Sikkim-Himalaya in one with large flowers, in the other, " conspicuous 
for the abundance rather than the large size of its blossoms.” Sir Joseph seems 
to have gathered his seed where the larger type prevailed. 
Nevertheless, the cultivated plants differ in certain respects among 
themselves, although the difference falls very far short of what is observable in 
their native haunts. The corollas are not quite alike in size or colour ; in some 
the calyx is green, in others pink ; in some there is a strong and delicious scent. 
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