42 ERICACE^I. Rhododendron. 



R. macrophyllum, Don. Shrub 10 to 15 feet high : leaves oblong, acute at both ends, 

 5 to 8 inches in length, thinnish : corolla white, less than an inch long ; its lobes oblong : 

 ovary bristly hirsute. Syst. iii. 843 ; Torr. Bot. Wilkes Exp. 382. R. maximum, Hook. 

 Fl. ii. 43, excl. syn. &c. Woods, Puget Sound to Washington Territory. A little known 

 species. 



-1 ) Atlantic States species : pedicels glandular or pubescent. 



R. maximum, L. (GREAT LAUREL or ROSE BAY.) Shrub or small tree 6 to 35 feet 

 high : leaves elongated- or lanceolate-oblong, acute or short-pointed, narrowed toward the 

 mostly acute base, 4 to 10 inches long, commonly whitish beneath : pedicels viscid : calyx- 

 lobes oval, equalling the glandular ovary : corolla pale rose-color or nearly white, greenish 

 in the throat on upper side and with some yellowish or reddish spots, campanulate, an inch 

 long, rather deeply 5-cleft into oval lobes: capsule short. Catesb. Car. iii. t. 17 ; Lam. 

 111. t. 364 ; Bot. Mag. t. 951 ; Michx. f. Sylv. i. t. 67 ; Bigel. Med. Bot. iii. t. 51. R. /;/- 

 pureuin & R. Ptirshii, Don, 1. c. (varying in color of flower, &c.). Damp woods, rare in 

 Nova Scotia, New England and bordering part of Canada, common through the Alle- 

 ghanies on steep banks of streams, &c., New York to Georgia. Flowering toward mid- 

 summer, simultaneously with the growth of the leafy shoots. 



R. Catawbiense, Michx. Shrub 3 to 6 (rarely 20) feet high : leaves oval or broadly 

 oblong, mostly obtuse or rounded at both ends, 3 to 5 inches long : pedicels rusty-pubescent 

 when young, glabrous in age : calyx and its lobes very short : ovary oblong, rusty-pubes- 

 cent : corolla lilac-purple, broadly campanulate, an inch and a half high, with broad 

 roundish lobes: capsule narrowly oblong. Fl. i. 258 ; Bot. Mag. t. 1671. Higher moun- 

 tains, Virginia to Georgia : fl. at beginning of summer. Largely hybridized with other 

 species, and varied in cultivation. 



* * Lepidote-dotted or scurfy with scattered peltate scales: stems mostly spreading or diffuse: 

 flowers fewer or few in the umbel : seeds (in ours and in most species) with a close coat, barely 

 apiculate at either end ! 



-i Southern species: stems 3 to fi feet high, with slender and often recurving branches: even the 

 outside of the short-funnelform corolla sprinkled with the resinous globules or dots: stamens 

 10: flower-buds ovate or oblong and well imbricated. 



R. punctatum, Andr. Diffuse, the slender branches recurved or spreading: leaves 

 lighter green and thinner-coriaceous, oblong or oval-lanceolate, acute or somewhat acu- 

 minate at both ends, 2 to 5 inches long : flowers developed later than or with the leaves of 

 the season (in early summer), copious : corolla rose-color, an inch long, short-funnelform 

 with an ample widely expanded limb and rounded-obovate slightly undulate lobes, ex- 

 ceeding the stamens and style: capsule resinous-dotted: seeds oval. Bot. Rep. t. 3(5 ; 

 Vent. Cels. t. 15; Bot. Reg. t. 37. R. minus, Michx. Fl. i. 258. Eastern portion of the 

 Alleghany Mountains from N. Carolina to Georgia, and extending to the eastern frontier 

 of the latter State on the Savannah River at Augusta. Corolla often darker-spotted and 

 greenish in the throat. 



R. Chapmanii. More erect and rigid : leaves firm-coriaceous, oval or oblong, obtuse, 

 seldom an inch and a half long, duller, more crowded, short-petioled : flowers developed 

 earlier than the leafy shoots of the season : corolla rose-color, spotted within, more nar- 

 rowly funnelform ; the tube longer than the limb; lobes somewhat ovate, shorter than the 

 stamens and style : seeds narrowly oblong. R. punctatum, var., Chapm. Fl. 26G. Sandy 

 pine barrens, W. Florida, Chapman. 



-i -i Arctic-alpine species, small and depressed: corolla rotate-campanulate, deeply 5-cleft, not 

 lepidote or resinous-dotted : stamens 5 to 10 : flower-buds globular and less imbricated. 



R. Lapponicum, W^ahl. Divergently branched from the base, prostrate or a span 

 or two high : leaves a quarter to half an inch long, firm-coriaceous, oval or oblong, obtuse : 

 umbels 3-6-flowered : corolla purple, with darker spots within, half inch long : stamens 

 5 to 8, rarely 10. Fl. Suec. 249; DC. Prodr. vii. 724; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 3106. Azalea 

 Lapponica, L. ; Fl. Dan. t. 906. Alpine region of the mountains of N. New York and 

 New England, Labrador to the northern Rocky Mountains and arctic coast, west to Norton 

 Sound and Unalaschka (Eschscholtz). (Greenland to Arct. Asia.) R. pan- i folium, Adams 

 (Azalea Lapponica, Pall.), or at least the N. W. American form referred to it by Maximo- 

 wicz, seems hardly different; and all the American and Greenland specimens have the 

 filaments bearded or pubescent at base. 



