384 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



ance of varnish. The rose bay of Mount Caucasus has lilac- 

 colored flowers ; the Golden-flowered, R. chrysanthwn, a low 

 shrub with flowers of citron yellow with orange dots, is spread 

 extensively in Russia and Siberia, where a decoction of its 

 leaves is a celebrated remedy for rheumatism and affections of 

 the skin. In small doses, it is sudorific ; in large, poisonous. 

 The Daourian and the Kamtschatka rose bays, very low shrubs 

 with rose-colored flowers, and the Chinese, R. I'ndicum, of pur- 

 ple, flesh-color, rose, white or yellow, are, with all those above- 

 mentioned and some others, cultivated in Europe and in this 

 country. The species indigenous to the United States are the 

 American Purple, R. purpureum, the Catawba, the Dotted, R. 

 punciatum, all which are much cultivated and highly prized ; 

 Pursh's, the Lapland, — and the American, R. maximum, one 

 of the most beautiful, and the only true rhododendron found 

 growing spontaneously in Massachusetts. The leaves of the 

 Bell-flower Rose Bay, R. campanulatum, are used as snuff by 

 the natives of India. The same use is made of the leaves of 

 R. maximum in this country ; and the snuff is considered effica- 

 cious in catarrhs and other affections of the head. The rhodo- 

 dendron has a five-parted calyx ; a five-lobed (rarely seven- 

 lobed) corolla which is funnel-shaped, bell-shaped, or rarely 

 wheel-shaped, with the limb either equal or somewhat two- 

 lipped, the upper lip being broadest and usually spotted. The 

 stamens are five or ten, (rarely six to nine, or fourteen,) free 

 from the corolla and commonly declined and projecting ; with 

 anthers opening by two oblique, terminal pores. The ovary 

 has five or ten cells, with many ovules in each. The capsule is 

 five-celled, five-valved, rarely ten-celled, ten-valved ; the seeds 

 numerous, compressed, winged, attached to the central axis. 



The Common American Rose Bay. Dwarf Rose Bay. 



R. maximum. L. 



Figured in Bigelow's Medical Botany, Plate 51 ; in Audubon's Birds, II, 

 Plate 103 ; and in Micliaux, Sylva, II, Plate 67. 



The rose bay, as it occurs growing spontaneously in this 

 State, is a low, spreading plant, with its lower branches lying 



