Plate 443. 

 DOUBLE AZALEA— FRANCOIS DEVOS. 



There may be some difference of opinion as to the relative 

 progress made by English and French growers in the production 

 of new varieties of single Azaleas ; there can be none with 

 regard to the double section. Certainly of late years we have 

 had, comparatively speaking, but few English-raised seedlings ; 

 and although objections have been brought against the Belgian 

 flowers that they are not as good in form as the English 

 varieties, yet there can be no question that Charmer, Vivid, Beine 

 des Roses, Madame Dominique Vervaene, and others of a similar 

 class, make most showy and striking plants, while in the class 

 of double varieties the Belgians stand alone, for it is a singular 

 fact that hitherto no double variety has been raised in England, 

 while Souvenir de Prince Albert, Grande DucJiesse de Bade, and 

 others, have been raised in Belgium. 



We are indebted to the eminent horticulturist M. Ambroise 

 Verschafielt, of Grhent, for the opportunity of figuring the 

 very beautiful variety which Mr. Andrews has so faithfully 

 represented in our plate. It is unquestionably the very finest 

 of all the double varieties, the beautiful regularity of the 

 flowers and the roundness of the petals have not before been 

 obtained in any of the double varieties, while the intense rich- 

 ness of the colour is unsurpassed by any of the single varieties. 

 We can bear witness, too, to its great freedom of flowering ; 

 two plants of it in our greenhouse having been covered with 

 bloom, and were at once marked as a remarkably good market 



