texture and with a mouth 5 inches across. It has been
called the queen of all flowering shrubs. It grows well in Cornwall,
and among the hybrids from it is the famous Pink Pearl.

_R. Falconeri,_ a white-flowered species, is eminently characteristic
of the genus in habit, place of growth and locality, never occurring
below 10,000 feet. In foliage it is incomparably the finest. It throws
out one or two trunks clean and smooth, 30 feet or so high, the
branches terminated by immense leaves, deep green above edged
with yellow and ruby red-brown below. The creamy white flowers
are shaded with lilac and are slightly scented. They are produced in
tightly-packed clusters 9 to 15 inches across and twenty or more in
numbers.

A peculiar (in that it is of all the species the only one that is
epiphytal) but much the largest flowered species is the _R.
Dalhousiae._ It grows, like the orchids, among ferns and moss upon
the trunks of, large trees, especially oaks and magnolias, and attains
a height of 6 to 8 feet. The flowers are three to seven in a head, and
are 3 1/2 to 5 inches long and as much across the mouth, white with
an occasional tinge of rose and very fragrant. In size, colour, and
fragrance of the blossoms this is the noblest of the genus. It grows
out-of-doors in Cornwall and in the greenhouse in other parts of
England as a scraggy bush 10 to 12 feet high. _R. barbatum_ is a
tree from 40 to 60 feet high, producing flowers of a rich scarlet or
blood-colour, and sometimes puce or rich pink. It is one of the most
beautiful of the Himalayan rhododendrons, and is now very
common in England, growing freely out-of-doors. Another truly
superb plant is _R. Maddeni,_ with very handsome pure white
flowers 3 1/2 to 4 inches long and as much across the mouth. This is
now a special favourite in England. It grows in large bushes in the
open in Cornwall and is very sweet-scented. _R. virgatum_ is a
beautiful delicately white-flowered shrub. And _R. campylo-carpum_
displays masses of exquisite pale yellow bells of rarest delicacy.

Besides rhododendrons, ash, walnut, and maple become more
abundant as we ascend, and at 9,000 feet larch appears, and there are
woods of a spruce resembling the Norwegian spruce in general
appearance. Among the plants are wood-sorrel, bramble, nut, spiraea,
and various other South European and North American genera.

The climate is no longer stifling and the leeches have disappeared.
We miss many beauties