i^ftotJobenbron ^ocietp ^otesi. 
SOME LARGE-LEAVED RHODODENDRONS. 
In response to the request of the Secretary of the Society, I am to write 
about “ Some Large-leaved Rhododendrons,” not that I imply his prescription 
of the subject, but it happened that during the autumn I had been working out 
some of Forrest’s large-leaved forms which seemed to form a basis for such an 
article as was desired. Anyone writing on this theme a few years ago would 
have had a limited field of species to pass in review. To name R. argenteum. 
Hook. /., R. EXIMIUM, Nutt., R. Falconeri, Hook. /., R. grande, Wight, R. 
Hodgsoni, Hook. /., all Himalayan species is to complete the list of forms then 
known. Now we are in touch with more than five times the number, chiefly 
through the exploration of Western China; the Himalayas have yielded so far 
but one additional name, R. decipiens, Lacaita. And we are not yet at the end 
of them either in China or in the Himalayas. The forms from the latter region 
have still to be critically sifted. From China the later months of the year have 
brought to Mr. J. C. Williams from Forrest advance material of three or four new 
species, the last one to arrive (in only a few leaves as yet) under the apt name 
R. GIGANTEUM, for its description tells that it is a tree about 80 feet high with a 
bole 7 feet 9_ inches in girth at 6 feet from the ground. We learn from all the 
specimens of Rhododendron that have come to us that the development of 
large leaves has happened in more than one phylum of the genus. In some phyla 
they are only occasional, in others dominant, and it is the latter which include 
the Himalayan species mentioned above and which come to mind when large- 
leaved Rhododendrons are referred to. 
In 1853 Nuttall brought together the Himalayan Rhododendrons with large 
leaves in a group of the genus to which he gave the name Sciadendron, and he 
recognised correctly the associated characters of small calyx, bell-shaped corolla 
with 8-10 lobes, 12-18 stamens and 12-18-chambered capsule. This grouping 
was followed in the Genera Plantarum and also in the Flora of British India. 
Our extended knowledge of the genus shows us that this grouping is partially 
phyletic. Members of two phyla are mcluded in Sciadendron—R. eximium, R. 
Falconeri and R. Hodgsoni belong to one phylum, R. argenteum and R. 
GRANDE to another. We may designate the first of these phyla the Falconeri 
Series, the latter the Grande Series, after the oldest-named species included in 
each. It was to have been my task to endeavour to associate with these older 
known species the newer ones with which we have become acquainted and to 
indicate salient features characterising these series and distinctive of the several 
species belonging to them, but the number of species claiming attention that have 
come upon the horizon have compelled me to restrict the performance of my 
task to an account of one Series only-—the Falconeri Series—leaving the gr.-\.nde 
and other Series to be dealt with on some other occasion. 
THE FALCONERI SERIES. 
Rhododendron Falconeri itself is so well known to all who are interested 
in Rhododendrons that with assurance I may ask readers of this story to keep 
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