ERiCACE^. 261 



proboscis to touch the style first and leave on the cup-shaped stigma any 

 pollen it might bring. The proboscis would then curve round the ovary 

 and against the corolla and so come into contact with the horns of a stamen 

 and shake pollen out of the anther on to it. 



The floral mechanism thus appears to be very similar to that of the 

 English Bearberry, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi Spr. 



RHODODENDRON. 



This genus includes both the Rhododendrons and the 

 Azaleas of English gardens; the former with evergreen 

 leaves and flowers in close bunches, the latter with 

 annual leaves and more scattered flowers. 



Shrubs and small trees with alternate often leathery- 

 leaves and large winter buds. Flowers regular or nearly 

 so. Corolla five-lobed. Stamens ten, not attached to the 

 corolla. Ovary five to twenty-celled with single style and 

 capitate stigma, which like the stamens is slightly bent 

 upwards. Fruit a woody capsule, opening from the top 

 downwards into its component carpels but leaving a 

 central axis. Seeds many and small. 



Species about 200, with numerous natural varieties : and 

 now, in cultivation, many hybrids and garden varieties. For 

 the most part natives of the region between southern China and 

 the south-west Himalayas, but extending also to Japan, the 

 islands north of it, and North America, on the one side ; and 

 on the other to the Caucasus and southern Europe (4 sp.). 

 North Australia has one species and South India one. 



The Rhododendrons of English gardens have nearly all sprung, from 

 seed collected by the late Sir Dr. T. H. Hooker in the Sikkim Himalayas 

 (1847-51). 



Rhododendron arborcum Sm.; F.B.I. iii 465, Vin 10. 

 A small tree with stiff elliptical white-backed leaves, 

 erect in bud, and masses of blood-red or crimson flowers, 

 very conspicuous in January. 



Height 15 to 20 feet; bark very thick and rough. 

 Leaves elliptic or lanceolate, acute at both ends, rusty or 

 silvery-white underneath, dark green above, very coria- 

 ceous and stiff, with strongly recurved margins ; in bud 

 erect and showing their silvery backs, later spreading 



