Tab.X
RHODODENDRON FALCONERI, s o o k .fi.
Dr, Falconer's Rhododendron..
T a b . X.
Arboreum, Mb's amplis valde coriaceis obovafco-ellipticis obtnsis cum mucronulo basi cordatis supra nitidis glabris reticulatim venosis subtus
ferrugineis costa petiolisque validis rufo-tomentoso-furfuraceis, capitulis globosis densis multifloris, pedunculis crectis pubeseenti-viscosis,
fioribus parvis (pro planta) albis, calyce minutissimo vix lobato, corollse lobis 10 rotundatis, staminibus 16, ovario hirsutissimo viscoso
18-loculari, stylo flexuoso incrassato longe exserto, stigmate dilatato.
H ab. Sikkim-Himalaya. Summit o f Tonglo, elev. 10,000 feet.
A tree thirty feet in height; two or three trunks springing from the same point, and they are often two feet in diameter.
The bark is pale and smooth : branches few, spreading, leafy at the points; the young leaves clothed with velvety down, and
in the state of the bud concealed by downy glutinous scales, of which the outer are subulate, the inner ovate. The perfect
leaves are very coriaceous, from eight inches to a foot in length, five to seven inches wide, the upper side glossy green, but
fading into yellow at the margins, which margins are quite plane (not recurved), beneath, except on the mid-rib and reticulated
veins, clothed with a short, dense, pale, ferruginous down. Petioles long and very thick, plane and glabrous above,
semiterete and clothed with dark rusty down beneath. Heads not large, but composed of numerous, rather small, white,
densely placed flowers. Stamens sixteen. Style much exserted. Peduncles erect, elongated after flowering. Capsules
erect, eight to ten-valved, hispid, an inch and a half long, with numerous cells.
If not the most showy, this is certainly one of the most striking and distinct of the genus. The noble foliage has
some resemblance to that of the variety of Magnolia grandiflora, which has the leaves ferruginous beneath. The dense
many-flowered head, the multiplication of the lobes of the corolla, and of the stamens and cells of the fruit, and the exserted
style, bring it very near R. grande, Wight’s Ic. Plant., vol. iv. tab. 1202; but the foliage is totally different.
T ab. X. Rhododendron Falconeri. Pig. 1. Bracteal scale. !i. Flower. 3. Stamen. 4. Pistil. 5. Section of ovary magnified.
London : Priulcd by ltecvc, Ucidituu, and Bccvc, King William Street, Strand.