THE 



6AHDEII eUiSE. 



Mat, 1863. 



THE AZALEA. 



HE great family of Ericas — Ericacece — is 

 usually divided into two great groups. The 

 first of these comijrises in one section the true 

 Heaths, and Gypsocallis, the moor heath, and 

 ^ in another section the Andromeda, Arbutus, Pernettya, 

 Dabfeeia, and other allied genera. In the second group 

 we have Ehododendron, Azalea, Kalmia, Menziesia, 

 Leiophyllum, and Ledum; mostly shrubs of stately- 

 habit and valued for their handsome foliage and magni- 

 ficent flowers. The majority of the Azaleas have usually 

 been classed under the generic name of Rhododendron, 

 and hence in Don's ''Dichlamydeous Plants," and in Sweet's 

 "Hortus Britannicus," there is but one plant named under the 

 generic name Azalea, and that is A. procumbens, a trailing 

 shrub, native of Britain (but scarce) and IS'orth America, and which was 

 formerly known as Loiseleuria procumbens. As tlie term " American 

 plants " is applied indiscriminately to all the Ericaceous shrubs com- 

 monly cultivated in peat-beds in this country, it is worth remarking that 

 but a small proportion have been introduced from America, and those the 

 least valued of the whole. Thus, among the plants now classed as 

 azaleas, China has supplied us with A. indicum, the most prized of all ; 

 A. amsena, obtusa, Danielsiana, crispiflora, ovata, and sinensis are also from 

 China. The oriental species are all less hardy than the American kinds, 

 but they are mostly of great interest, and unsurpassed for beauty among 

 our hardy flowering shrubs. It is usually stated in horticultural books 

 that all the hardy azaleas are deciduous, and all the tender kinds ever- 

 green. This is nearly, but not quite true. Azalea squamata, bearing rosy 

 crimson flowers, is deciduous, and requires greenhouse culture; on the 

 other hand, A. amsena, flowering profusely in April, is evergreen, and 

 quite hardy. A. obtusa, which is equal to amtena in beauty, perhaps u 

 tritie more showy, is, we believe, also quite as hardy ; but of that point wo 

 cannot speak with certainty, having no plants of it out during the winter 

 of 1860-fiI, when ama>na in our collection passed through the trial with 



VOL. Vr. NO. V. I 



