QBARS - v30n2 More on R. vemicosum aff. 18139

More on R. vernicosum aff. 18139
Ray and Jane Goodrich
Members Gable Study Group

After the January 1976 Quarterly had gone to press with the article on R. vernicosum aff. Rock 18139, we located additional information which confirmed the plant's origin and numbers. An old Quarterly contained a letter from Joseph B. Gable which referred to this plant and showed three numbers. The number unknown to us was 84054. Mr. Gable's letter also establishes that the identification of R. vernicosum aff. was made at Edinburgh.
From studying the U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Introduction books and files we can now state the following:

84054 is the USDA Plant Introduction Number, 18139 is Joseph F. Rock's Field Number, and 03788 is the USDA Plant Quarantine Number. The Royal Horticultural Society Rhododendron Handbook, Part One, Species (1967) uses the Plant Quarantine Numbers for the entire 1929 Rock expedition.

Our original intent was to research the 1929 Rock numbers grown by Gable as shown in his seed lists. However once we found all those books and files we became so interested that we did the entire 1929 expedition. This correlated listing is being made available to the American Rhododendron Society for publication.