Sunday 10 May 2009

Rhododendron candelabrum Hook.f.


Rhododendron candelabrum Hook.f. -- Rhod. Sikkim-Himal. t. 29.


The plant from which the accompanying plate and description are taken, was found in thick Pine-woods near Lachen village, before I was well acquainted with the R. Thomsoni (Tab. XII.), of which I fear it is only a pale-flowered variety, found growing at a lower elevation than that species usually inhabits, flowering earlier and in a shady protected situation. The much shorter calyx (of the same peculiar character, however), its glandular margin and ovarium, are the only further distinctions I have been able to detect between them, and they are quite unimportant.

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