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Rh

A species very variable in habit, dimensions, and foliage, comprising several different geographical forms, which under cultivation preserve in a great measure their peculiarities. The following description is drawn up from wild specimens of the Corsican tree, which is the finest form.

A tree attaining 150 feet in height and 20 feet in girth. Bark on old trees about an inch thick, deeply fissuring into irregular longitudinal plates, which exfoliate in small rounded scales, leaving exposed pale brown, slight oval depressions where they fall off. Buds $1/2$ to 1 inch long, elongated, abruptly contracted to an acuminate apex, light brown in colour, tinged with white, the lowermost scales loose and reflected, the uppermost bound together by white resin. Branchlets stout, glabrous, brown in colour; leaf-bases very prominent, keeled, and imbricated, persisting for several years on the older leafless branchlets.

Leaves, in pairs, densely covering the whole branchlet on barren shoots, forming an apical cup-like tuft above, directed upwards and forwards below; deciduous in the fourth or fifth year; stout, 4 to 6 inches long, about $1/16$ inch wide, straight or curved, often twisted, serrulate, ending in a short callous point; semi-terete in section, with