^Ijobotienbron ^ocietp JtoteiS 
is larger and much more distinctly lobed. Still, the most sahent characteristic 
of R. DISCOLOR is its late flowering. It is this, added to its fine flowers and 
noble trusses, that makes its advent to gardens so interesting and welcome. At 
Kew it flowers from about midsummer’s daj'^ to the middle of July. I had a truss 
from Lamellen, on July 8th, 1917, so it evidently flowers in Cornwall about the 
same time. Its growth is similarly late in starting. Except for R. auriculatum 
—a Rhododendron by itself as regards lateness of growth and flower—^it, R. 
SEROTiNUM and R. MAXIMUM flower habitually later than any others, although 
the last flowers of some garden varieties coincide with their early ones. The 
introduction of R. discolor has given the opportunity to produce a race of 
hybrids of the Fortunei type later flowering than anj^ we have at present. In 
fact, the foundations of this race have alreadj" been laid. 
Under the name of R. Kirkii there is in a few gardens a Rhododendron 
belonging to the Fortunei group. We have it at Kew, and Mr. Millais mentions 
it in his book, on page 169, as having flowered in his garden in July, 1915. I do 
not know how the name originated ; I cannot find that one such has ever been 
pubhshed, but I suspect it originated in Messrs. Veitch’s nursery at Coombe 
Wood, probably as a provisional name for a batch then thought to be distinct. 
Although I have not seen it in flower, I feel certain that it is nothing but 
R. DISCOLOR. The leaves match those of that species, and it flowered with 
Mr. Millais in July, which is the season of R. discolor and not that of 
R. Houlstonii, with which he compares it. Moreover, the Wilson numbers 
given by Mr. Millais, viz., 885 and 885B, are those of R. discolor. 
Several crosses with discolor as one parent have been made at Kew, chiefly 
with such garden varieties as “ Pink Pearl,” ‘‘ Strategist,” “Doncaster,” 
“ Memoir,’” etc. But it has also been hybridised with some species— 
Griffithianum (Aucklandii), maximum, and occidentale, the last of course 
an Azalea. 
R. SEROTINUM, Hutchinson. 
In 1889, there were received at Kew, from the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, 
a few seedlings of Rhododendron under the name of decorum. Some were kept 
under glass and some tried out-of-doors. Under both conditions they showed 
a strong disinclination to branch, and I remember especially one that grew in the 
Rhododendron Dell which ultimately became 7 or 8 feet high, but had only some 
eight or ten growing shoots—a veritable scarecrow of a Rhododendron. To 
the regret of no one, a storm at last snapped it off. There are still two plants in 
the Temperate House which show, only not so badly, a similar lanky growth, 
and make shoots one foot or more in length in a season. One is a fairly pre¬ 
sentable shrub, but the other is actually treated as a climber on a pillar and is 
12 feet high. In 1905, when I was somewhat younger and more venturesome 
than I am now, I wrote an article about Chinese Rhododendrons in Robinson’s 
Flora and Sylva. In this article I made some disparaging remarks about R. 
DECORUM as I then knew it. But afterwards R. decorum of Wilson’s collecting 
came into cultivation, and it has now flowered several times. It has proved to 
be a shrub of sturdy habit and exceedingly attractive in flower. In consequence, 
I have had rather a bad time about my Flora and Sylva remarks, and expressions 
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