1873.] RHODODENDRONS. 277 



RHODODENDROlSrS. 



Of all our common shrubs I often wonder that the commoner varieties 

 of the Rhododendrons are not far more extensively used. Many of 

 the common shrubs are well adapted for giving shelter, while, as to 

 ornament and general appearance, they are by no means superior to 

 the common sorts of Rhododendrons. I have in the course of my 

 practice planted many shrubs, and whenever I could I used a good 

 number of the common Rhododendrons. They have many desirable 

 qualities — not that there is by any means the least objection to the 

 better sorts of Rhododendrons, when a few shillings, as to price, is of 

 very little consideration. The general idea that Rhododendrons will 

 not live in any soil except that of a peaty nature, may be greatly 

 qualified according to many local constituents in the soil. There are 

 two things which Rhododendrons are very impatient of, stiff adhesive 

 clay, and chalky soils : perhaps as much as any kind of shrubs, the 

 Rhododendron dislikes a bottom where the water cannot pass away 

 freely. I have seen the common sorts grown about shrubberies and 

 grounds from self-sown seed by the thousand on a poor hungry 

 pebbly soil having only a few inches of a peaty nature on the surface, 

 principally from the decay of vegetable substances in the course of 

 ages ; and when this soil was trenched about a foot deep, nothing 

 could do better in it than Rhododendrons. 



Rhododendrons are a surface-rooting plant, seldom, even in old 

 well-established plants, having strong, thick, extending roots. Several 

 years ago we had to do with some very old and very large plants : a 

 portion of them had had a trench dug out for them of about 18 inches 

 deep, which trench had been filled up with peat, and this had become 

 a compact mass, just such as would make good fuel when well dried. 

 The roots had scarcely gone over 6 inches deep into it, and as the 

 leaves had accumulated upon the surface in the course of many years 

 (they had been planted perhaps 100 years), immediately under these 

 leaves the roots were nearly all found in a compact mass of small fibres. 

 Another lot of plants close by, where the soil was well mixed with 

 small pebbles, sent their roots. deep into the soil. Some years ago I 

 planted a good many hybrid Rhododendrons in borders. The soil 

 generally was of a good loamy texture, what might be termed good 

 wheat land. It was well trenched. Other shrubs were planted be- 

 hind the Rhododendrons, and flower-borders formed in front of them. 

 Selecting nice bushy plants of Rhododendrons, I hollowed out a 

 place for each plant, into which was put a small barrowful of peat 

 formed from the decayed fronds of Pteris aquilina and oak-tree leaves, 

 from where possibly it had been accumulating for many ages. This peat 

 was placed round the small ball of the young plants, and in two years' 



