d)c ^ocietp ^ote^. 
Later in the year (Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1859, p. 1019), the following 
occurs :— 
‘‘ Sale of Rhododendron Fortunei, Taxus cuspidata and other Conifers. These 
were sold by Mr. Stevens, on Saturday last (December 3rd, 1859), and realized 
the following prices : R. Fortunei, in lots of six strong plants, 11s. to £i 11s., 
other lots of 10 plants each from 12s. to 15s. per lot, and smaller plants fetched 
even less money. The original imported plant from Japan realized £8 10s.” 
(Japan no doubt is in mistake for China.) 
Judging by these prices there does not appear, sixty years ago, to have been 
any great enthusiasm for new species of Rhododendron, although it must be 
remembered most of them were probably only seedhngs two or three years old. 
If one could see Messrs.* Stevens’ sale books of the time it would no doubt be 
possible to find out to whom the imported plant that fetched £8 10s. was sold. 
It does not appear to have flowered very soon, for in the Gardeners’ Chronicle 
for June 4th, 1864, p. 536, there appeared the following : ” We have to thank 
A. G. for flowers of what is said to be Rhododendron Fortunei, and very ugly 
they are. Can no one favour us with an authentic specimen ? ” 
The first recorded authentic flowering occurred two years later. May, 1866, 
in the garden of Mr. Luscombe, at Coombe Royal, Kingsbridge, Devon, when 
the Botanical Magazine plate was made. It was pubhshed later in the same 
year as tab. 5596. Mr. Luscombe writes in the Gardeners’ Chronicle for 
1868, p. 1067 : ‘‘ It may interest your readers to know that this fine 
Rhododendron is perfectly hardy in South Devon, the plant at Coombe Ro 3 ^al 
being wholly uninjured by the severe weather of 1866-7.” 
Mr. Luscombe, as we know, was the first to use R. Fortunei for hybridizing, 
and raised from it the fine R. ” Luscombei,” ” Luscombei splendens,” ” Mrs. 
Thiselton-Dyer,” etc. 
Some doubt has been expressed as to whether the original R. Fortunei of 
the Botanical Magazine (“ Fortune’s Fortunei ”) is the same as we grow to-day. 
The characteristic glands on the style, flower-stalk and outside the corolla axe 
not shown in the figure, nor are they mentioned in the text. These, however, 
are omissions on the part of the artist and author as can be seen b 3 r examining 
the actual specimens from Mr. Luscombe, figured in Ma 3 ^ 1866, \vhich are 
preserved at Kew. 
I do not know that seeds of R. Fortunei have ever been reintroduced from 
the actual site where Fortune discovered it. This, the Chekiang habitat of the 
plant, Tientai Mountain, was visited in 1884, b 3 '^ Mr. Cooper, and in 1878, Charles 
Maries, at that time in the employ of Messrs. Veitch, found R Fortunei in the 
mountains of Kewkiang, some 200 miles west of the Chekiang site, a localit 3 " 
also visited by Mr. T. L. Bullock in 1892. In 1907, E. H. Wilson found it at 
Ruling, in the province of Kiangsi, some miles south of Kewldang. There is 
no record that either Cooper or Bullock sent home seed. Messrs. Veitch tell 
us that Maries did, but his as well as the other collectors’ dried specimens at 
Kew are in the flowering state. 
♦ A subsequent enquiry has failed. C.C.E. 
188 
