124 THE FLORIST. 



THE AZALEA INDICA. 



Agreeably to my promise, I now offer you some remarks on the 

 Azalea indica, — of all the inmates of the greenhouse the most luxu- 

 riant in their flowers, and the most varied and splendid in their 

 colours. So profuse are they of their lovely blossoms, that the 

 shrubs which produce them are for the most part rendered nearly 

 invisible by them, while the endless gradations, and shades of every 

 hue, which they exhibit, seem to defy the most skilful art to portray 

 them. As I have done before with respect to the Camellia, I shall 

 now put down some of the principal varieties, arranged under their 

 colours, premising only that I take the names as I have received 

 them. In other respects, your readers may rely on the correctness 

 of the description, which is not always the case with those published 

 in the catalogues ; and of this inaccuracy there are two notable in- 

 stances in the list sent you by Messrs. I very (July 1852, No. 19), 

 wherein the varieties called Rubens and the Duke of Devonshire are 

 described as crimsons, both being scarlets. In order to prevent 

 misunderstanding on this point, it may be as well to define, by some 

 clear and familiar illustration, the distinction between these two 

 colours. By scarlet, then, I mean, the colour of old Parkinson's 

 Lychnis, such as is seen in great brilliance in many varieties of the 

 Verbena, in short, the colour of the ordinary military uniform. By 

 crimson, I understand the colour seen in its deepest tint in the old 

 Paeony and Double Daisy, shading off, through innumerable grada- 

 tions, to delicate pink and rose-colours. Purple is a compound colour, 

 dividing into two sections ; viz. that in which blue predominates, and 

 that which is tinged with a crimson hue, or, as we commonly say, 

 blue-purples and red-purples. These definitions or illustrations of 

 colour are what, I believe, are generally received ; but they must be 

 carefully adhered to if we mean to be correct. Persons who give 

 their attention to the raising of hybrids, as most cultivators now do 

 in a greater or less degree, are apt, when any particular colour is a 

 desideratum, to give its name to any variety at all approaching it. 

 But though this may be excusable from the natural wish to draw 

 public attention and interest to a novelty, it has occasioned a good 

 deal of misplaced nomenclature. 



It is, indeed, curious to observe how determinedly certain fami- 

 lies of plants seem to resist the introduction of certain colours or 

 shades among them. The Camellia, though abounding in brilliant 

 reds, does not display a true scarlet, except in the solitary instance 

 of the Caroline mentioned in my last. In the Azalea, on the con- 

 trary, both hardy and tender scarlets abound ; while, with the ex- 

 ception of Azalea sinensis, closely allied to Pontica, neither blue nor 

 yellow are to be met with, either in the Camellia or Azalea indica. 

 Mr. Smith of Norbiton told me he had tried every device he could 

 think of to obtain a yellow Azalea indica without success. When 

 once science and persevering investigation shall have discovered the 

 secret of the causes of colour in flowers, what a boundless and 



