1923) PALMER. THE RED RIVER FOREST AT FULTON. ARKANSAS 33 



continental movements late in the Tertiary that elevated the western 

 lands and sent down the floods that spread the Lafayette gravels across 

 the Gulf States from the base of the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi 

 River, that elevated the Ozark plateau and Boston Mountains on the 

 north and drove the waters of the Gulf far to the south before the ad- 

 vancing plain. At any rate it seems evident that in places like this we may 

 recognize the approximate lines along which some of these fluctuations of 

 the ancient forest culminated. So that the investigator here may feel 

 an emotion somewhat like that of a traveller standing on some famous 

 historic spot which brings him face to face with the past. Only here he 

 may be sure he is dealing with events that far transcend the dates of all 

 human history, and the silent forest yet stands as a living link between the 

 present and the past. 



THE RHODODENDRONS OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA 

 EXCLUSIVE OF THOSE BELONGING TO THE 



SUBGENUS ANTHODENDRON 



Ernest H. Wilson 



The Rhododendrons dealt with here are found scattered over an immense 

 territory from the Altai Mountains in about Long. 90° E. eastward to 

 the Pacific Ocean in Long. 145° E.; in latitude from about 60° N. to 30° N. 

 One species (R. kamtschaticum Pall.) extends through the Aleutian Islands 

 to Alaska and finds the southern limit of its distribution on Banks Island 

 in British Columbia. Three of the species (R. Metternichii S. & Z., II. 

 Keiskei Miq. and R. semibarbatum Maxim.) are purely Japanese. One 

 (R. brachycarpum D. Don) is Japanese and Korean; another (R. micran- 

 thum Turcz.) extends from Korea through south Manchuria, south 

 Mongolia and northern to western China and has its southern limit of 

 distribution on the mountains of Hupeh province and its western on that 

 of Szech'uan on the Chino-Thibetan border-land. The other species are 

 very wide-spread in northeastern Asia though R. Adamsii Rehd. seems to 

 be limited to east-central Siberia and more especially to the mountains 

 of the Baikal region and the valley of the Lena River. One might expect 

 to find a greater number of species in so vast a territory but it should be 

 remembered that as a rule in boreal regions species are few and widely 

 distributed. In Japan especially one would have thought that a more 

 intimate knowledge of the rich flora would have revealed additional 

 species of Rhododendron than were known to Maximowicz in 1870. It is 

 true that Japanese botanists have described one or two species but I lo 

 not think these can be maintained. 



In his work on the Rhododendrons of eastern Asia, Maximowicz 

 enumerates 31 species indigenous in that region. Of these 17 species 

 are what are popularly known as Azaleas and have been described by 



