388 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



point, reflex and ciliate on the margin, smooth and sometimes 

 shining above, with the mid-rib bristling beneath and tapering 

 at base to a short stalk. 



The flowers are six to twelve, in a diverging whorl or termi- 

 nal corymb, their stems, when few, issuing from nearly the 

 same point. At the foot of each green or colored flower-stem, 

 are a white, hollow, obovate, bract-like scale, nearly as long 

 as the stem, and one or two fugacious, thread-like bracts, much 

 shorter. The stem and flower are covered with glandular, 

 sometimes glutinous hairs. The calyx is usually short, with 

 five rounded or pointed, ciliate or hairy teeth. The corolla is a 

 white or scarlet, oblique tube, set with brownish, viscous hairs, 

 and expanding into live unequal, reflexed, pink segments, of a 

 pure white, or sometimes with a tint of flesh color within. 

 Three or four stamens are usually longer, and one or two shorter 

 than the corolla, with scarlet threads, downy below and smooth 

 above, bending upwards and supporting a light, rust-colored, 

 linear anther, opening obliquely at the extremity by two round 

 pores. The ovary, at flowering, is a five-sided pyramid. The 

 style is scarlet, slightly hairy, a little longer than the stamen, 

 with a capitate stigma. The fruit, which often remains on the 

 stem till the flowers of the succeeding season appear, is a dry, 

 five-celled, many-seeded capsule, with valves opening from the 

 centre and top, and having the persistent, sickle- shaped style 

 at the end of the central axis. 



There are many permanent varieties of this plant in its native 

 state, differing in the color and viscidness of the flowers, the 

 shape of the calyx-segments, and the color of the leaves. The 

 most marked are 



Var. 1. — Glaucum of Pursh, in which the leaves are green 

 above and glaucous beneath. 



Var. 2. — Leaves pale above and glaucous beneath, with the 

 teeth of the calyx long, spatulate and reflexed. 



Var. 3. — Leaves glaucous on both surfaces and with later 

 flowers. 



Few flower plants have been more valued and cultivated in 

 European gardens than this. None more readily hybridizes 

 with the other rhododendrons and azaleas. In Loddige's Cata- 



