XX. 9. THE SWAMP PINK. 387 



land, and if care be taken to protect it from the scorching heat 

 of summer, and to place it in a sheltered situation where it shall 

 not be exposed to the severest winds of winter. It richly de- 

 serves a place in every garden. 



It is the most beautiful native flower of Massachusetts, and 

 is singularly well fitted to ornament a parlor. A flower-bud 

 not beginning to open has been placed in a vase, where it 

 opened its flowers as well as if left on the stem; and the flowers 

 continued fresh and beautiful more than fifteen days. 



Section Azalea. — The Azaleas differ from the true Rhodo- 

 dendrons in having only five stamens, and their leaves decidu- 

 ous. They differ still more in habit and properties. The 

 flowers are large and fragrant, and, in the different species, 

 they are yellow, white, flesh-colored, rose-red, or variegated, 

 and covered externally with hairs or with a glandular pubes- 

 cence. The Pontic Azalea, the one longest known and culti- 

 vated, has yellow, orange or white flowers, which exhale a 

 fragrance similar to that of the honeysuckle, but stronger, and 

 reputed unwholesome. 



Sp. 1. The Swamp Pink. Wild Honeysuckle. R. viscbsum. 

 Torrey. Azalea viscoses. L. 



Figured in Audubon's Birds, II, Plate 115. 



A flowering shrub, growing abundantly in open woods or on 

 their borders, in low, wet grounds, in most parts of New Eng- 

 land. Springing from a small root, with an ashen or slaty and 

 various colored or clouded stem, seldom more than an inch 

 in diameter, and throwing out branches in imperfect whorls or 

 stages, this beautiful plant rises to a bushy head at six or 

 eight feet from the ground. In the end of May, the season at 

 which the flowering begins, it is remarkable for its large, cone- 

 like flower-buds, composed of many scales, which, opening and 

 falling, expose to view bunches of fragrant, irregular flowers. 

 The leaves are alternate, or in tufts of five or six, at the end of 

 the branchlets which encircle the flower-stalk. They are in- 

 versely egg-shaped, pointed at the end with a brown, callous 



