i^tjotiolienbron ^ocietj> ^otesf. 
the Chinese species of the Falconeri Series (except R. eximium), distinguished 
from R. Falconeri by its eglandular ovary. Its cup-hairs, quite of the type of 
those of R. Falconeri, are smaller than in that species. 
Rhododendron basilicum, Batf. f. et W. W. Sm. 
Since his first finding of this species in 1912 on the Shweli-Salween divide at 
11,000 feet elevation, Forrest has met with it on several occasions in the same 
region. From the earlier collecting plants have been raised, which ought to 
flower within a few years from now, giving us trusses of fleshy pale-yellow flowers. 
The plant is described as a bush of 10-30 feet. The species has leaves as large 
as or larger than those of R. Falconeri itself, 25 cm. long by 13 cm. broad, 
wrinkled above but not so deeply honeycombed below as in that species. The 
underleaf indumentum is pale cinnamon-coloured, the hairs of the upper 
stratum beautifully developed as funnel-shaped cups with stout stalk expanding 
into a cup-wall of vertically elongated cells, the cup-margin spreading as a 
fringe, the segments of which run out into long fibril-like hairs, of which 
there may be many. This hair-stratum seems to be fairly persistent, falling off 
only in patches when it does disappear, and it gives the surface a slightly woolly 
look. The flower-truss is large with some 25 flowers in each, of which the corolla 
is not of the largest in the series, about 3.5 cm. long. The 16 stamens have 
glabrous filaments (occasionally a hair or two) and the 12-15-chambered ovary 
is without glands, but densely covered by cinnamon-coloured fasciate hairs 
with conspicuous stalks. The capsule, slightly curved, is as much as 4 cm. long 
and 1.25 cm. broad, and is coated with brown tomentum. 
R. BASILICUM is a larger-leaved plant than R. megaphyllum its nearest 
ally, and has different underleaf indumentum, its cup-hairs funnel-shaped with 
more developed fringe, an ovary with more chambers and a fruit nearly twice the 
size of that found in R. megaphyllum. 
Rhododendron coriaceum. Branch. 
[syn. R. FOVEOLATUM, Rehder et Wilson). 
Soulie discovered this species in April 1893 at Loukiong near Tseku on 
the Mekong in N.W. Yunnan. The next record of it is in specimens collected 
near Tseku and sent home in 1912 by Monbeig. Monbeig’s specimens in Kew 
Herbarium were described by Rehder and Wilson in Pl. Wilsoni.an^ I 
(1913) 537 as R. foveolatum, a name in which they stereotype the appearance 
of the underleaf indumentum, the cup-like feature of which they recognised. 
By Forrest also the plant has been found about Tseku, and in 1917 he extended 
our knowledge of its area of distribution by finding it at an elevation of 12,000 
feet on Doker-la in the Tsarong to the N.W. of the previously known stations. 
Forrest describes the plant as a shrub of 12-20 feet, and the flowers as white 
flushed-rose with a basal crimson blotch from which radiate upwards crimson 
spots. The species is marked by two prominent characters, one foliage and one 
floral—the underleaf indumentum is grey-white, and the corolla has seven lobes. 
The leaves are long and narrow as much as 28 cm. long and some 6-7 cm. broad, 
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