m'dowell's rhododendron 



Mr. Cliorlton, on this subject too, bears cmpliatic testimony : " I have had some 

 experience in the working of such societies in England, and can assert with confl- 

 dence that they have done more to elevate gardening in that country than any- 

 tliing else. They have been the means, during the last twenty years, of making 

 Kiiglish horticulture the model for the world, of stimulating skill, and raising a 

 higher standard of perfection." Mr. Elliott, the esteemed fruit-grower of Ohio, 

 in the first number of the Ohio Farmer, bore similar testimony to the advantages 

 of experimental gardens, but hitherto an apathy has prevailed fatal to any pros- 

 pect of education among us; until we wake up to its importance, we must continue 

 to bear our present burdens. But that the time is near at hand to move in the 

 matter, we fully believe. Who will set the ball in motion? It is time the gar- 

 dener was elevated to a position which the importance of his profession entitles 

 him to hold. lie is very often a well-educated companion, whose conversation 

 and general intelligence would compare with his superior in mere wealth; not 

 unfrequently he has travelled in pursuit of knowledge, and can bring an amount 

 of experience to his business that is truly valuable. Such men are the prizes ; 

 let us not hereafter have it to say they arc the exceptions — which surely they will 

 become more and more, when, from any cause, emigration ceases — unless v.-e pro- 

 vide the means of education to their children or our own. 



Experimental gardens would be the head-quarters from which gardeners, both 

 domestic and foreign, w^ould get certificates or diplomas of their qualifications ; 

 they would, in short, be a boon to both employers and employed. 



MCDOWELL'S RHODODENDRON.* 



Mr. Redmond, the editor of the Southern Cultivator, has favored us with a 

 beautiful drawing of a new, or at least undescribed Rhododendron, which we 

 have great pleasure in presenting to our readers, with the following narrative of 

 its discovery. Plants are promised us in the Spring, when we may be able to 

 give a further account of it : — 



Editors Southern Cultivator: I send you a drawing of a flowering ever- 

 green shrub, recently discovered on some of the mountains in Macon County, 

 North Carolina, which, in point of beauty and magnificence, is second only to 

 the Magnolia Grandiflora. 



It is a nameless and undescribed variety of Rhododendron ; there is, however, 

 a traditionary account of its discovery some sixty years since, by a botanist by 

 the name of Eraser, then exploring this country, under the patronage of the 

 then Emperor Paul, of Russia. Eraser died suddenly on his return to St 



* See Frontispiece. 



