Rhododendron parryae Hutch.

An evergreen shrub or small tree in the wild, sometimes epiphytic, with a pinkish-purple, peeling bark. Leaves narrowly oblong-elliptic, subacute to rounded and mucronate at the apex, 21⁄4 to 33⁄4 in. long, 11⁄8 to 13⁄4 in. wide, dark green above, glaucous green beneath, scaly on both sides, but more densely so beneath; petiole 1⁄2 in. or slightly more long, scaly. Flowers fragrant, in terminal trusses of three or four on pedicels up to 1 in. long. Calyx very small, scaly and shortly ciliate. Corolla widely funnel-shaped, up to 41⁄2 in. wide, white with a prominent orange-yellow blotch, lobes five, undulated, slightly scaly near the middle, the tube slightly scaly and downy near the base outside. Stamens ten, downy towards the base. Ovary densely scaly; style scaly in the lower half. (s. Maddenii ss. Ciliicalyx)

R. parryae was discovered by Mrs Parry, wife of an officer in the Indian Civil Service, growing on the Blue Mountain, Lushai Hills, in the south-eastern corner of Assam at 6,000 ft. She collected a fruiting specimen in February 1927, from which seeds were taken by Charles Raffill when it arrived at Kew. When a plant flowered in 1933 it proved to be a new species, which was described by Dr Hutchinson in that year (Gard. Chron., Vol. 93, p. 386).