146 THE FLORIST. 



THE RHODODENDRON. 



I now proceed to say a few words on the Rhododendron. The 

 alliance between this fine genus and the Azalea is a very singular 

 phenomenon in botany, for few plants in their general appearance 

 can be more widely different. The one succulent, vigorous, often 

 lofty in its growth, adorned at all seasons with bright, glossy, ever- 

 green leaves, and producing its flowers in dense clusters or trusses; 

 the other of a dry, twiggy habit, deciduous in all the hardy species, 

 and though the flowers of these are formed in heads, they never rise 

 in the cone-like form of the Rhododendron ; while in the tender 

 species it is only occasionally, and as it were by accident, that any 

 approach to this form is observed, the flowers being for the most 

 part produced singly, or a few only together. 



The Rhod. Gibsoni, a recent species from India, forms the only 

 exception that I am acquainted with to these general remarks, having 

 in its habit of growth, its leaves, and flowers, much more affinity 

 to the Azalea than to the Rhododendron. Notwithstanding the de- 

 cided differences above mentioned, the two genera freely hybridise 

 together ; the result being, in most cases, to produce an aggregation 

 of the flowers in heads or trusses, and the habit of the Azalea in all 

 other respects ; though in some varieties there is a greater glossiness 

 of leaf and a greater flexibility of stem. Some of your correspon- 

 dents who have had more experience in this matter than myself will 

 perhaps favour us with their remarks upon it. 



The first Rhododendrons cultivated in this country were, as was 

 natural, European ones, viz. Hirsutum and Ferrugineum, natives of 

 the Alps, and Ponticum, found in moist situations of the south of 

 Europe and Asia Minor. These were followed, after an interval of 

 forty or fifty years, by Caucasicum and Catawbiense, the latter surpass- 

 ing in beauty its predecessors, being a native of North America. But 

 the most important occurrence in the history of this genus, as regards 

 horticulture, w 7 as the discovery of the arborescent species, which 

 forms such a beautiful ornament on the Neilgherry hills and other 

 mountains of India. The rich colour of what is usually called the 

 scarlet variety of these plants, — but which, to speak more correctly, 

 is the fine deep crimson red that prevails in the Camellia, — and the 

 regular form of its rounded, tubular flowers, have produced by hy- 

 bridisation with the older hardy species, a variety in the tints, and 

 an improvement in the size and shape of the flower, which will ren- 

 der the Rhododendron one of the most charming and attractive objects 

 wherever the soil will allow of its cultivation. The first experiments 

 in this way were made in Lord Caernarvon's gardens at High Clere, 

 and the result was to obtain a flower partaking of the brilliant crim- 

 son of Arboreum, with a great expansion of the form, so that the 

 heads or trusses, which in the native Indian species were compara- 

 tively small and depressed, were raised to a more conical shape, and 

 increased to double the size. Some of the varieties thus obtained 

 were figured in the Botanical Magazine and Register, under the 



