ERICACE. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 147 
of hardy shrubs with fragrant flowers in colors passing from white through yellow and orange to pink 
and red." The Catawbiense Rhododendrons have been produced by crossing Rhododendron Catawbi- 
ensé, a native of the high summits of the southern Alleghany Mountains, which it sometimes covers with 
vast thickets, with Rhododendron Ponticum,® the offspring being again crossed with Rhododendron 
arboreum and other Indian species with bright-colored flowers, or with the North American Rhodo- 
dendron maximum. The race of Javanese Rhododendrons, conspicuous for their brilliantly colored 
flowers and their habit of flowering continuously, has been obtained by English gardeners by inter- 
breeding Rhododendron Javanicum,* Rhododendron jasminiflorum, and other Malayan species with 
persistent foliage and yellow, orange, and scarlet flowers.‘ 
The different species of Rhododendron in North America are sometimes injured by insects which 
bore into their trunks, and are occasionally disfigured by fungi.” 
The generic name, from fddov and dévdpov, was adopted by Linneus for the species with persistent 
foliage. 
1 Lindley, Bot. Reg. xvi. under t. 1366.— W. Watson, Gard. 
Chron. ser. 3, xii. 742. 
2 Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 258. — Bot. Mag. xl. t. 1671. — Elliott, 
Sk. i. 485.— De Candolle, Prodr. vii. 723. — Chapman, Fl. 266.— 
Gray, Syn. Fl. N. Am. ii. 42. 
8 Linneus, Spec. ed. 2, 562 (1762). — Pallas, Fl. Ross. i. 43, t. 
29.— Bot. Mag. xvii. t. 650. — Schmidt, Oestr. Baumz. iii. 4, t. 
122. — Nouveau Duhamel, ii. 140, t. 41.— Savi, Flora Italiana, iii. 
t. 101. —Guimpel, Otto & Hayne, Abdild. Holz. 136, t. 111.— De 
Candolle, l. c. 721. — Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 1131, £. 931. — Boissier, 
Fl. Orient. iii. 971. 
Rhododendron speciosum, Salisbury, Prodr. 287 (1796). 
4 Bennett, Pl. Jav. Rar. 85, t. 19 (1838). — Bot. Mag. 1xxiii. t. 
4336. — Paxton, Mag. Bot. xv.217; Fl. des Serres, iii. t. 293, 294. — 
Miquel, FU. Ind. Bat. ii. 1057. 
5 Hooker, Bot. Mag. Ixxvi. t. 4524 (1850). — Miquel, /. c. 
6 G. Henslow, Jour. Roy. Hort. Soc. xiii. pt. ii. 240. — W. Wat- 
son, J. c. 698. 
7 Exobasidium Azalee, Peck, forms irregular globose greenish 
swellings at the tips of the branchlets of Rhododendron viscosum and 
of Rhododendron nudiflorum which are sometimes eaten, and in those 
parts of the country where the true May Apple, Podophyllum pelta- 
tum, Linnzeus, does not occur, are called may apples. On Rhododen- 
dron viscosum, Exobasidium discoideum, Ellis, produces curious disks 
or cups usually on the under surface of the leaves; and Synchytrium 
Vaccinii, Thomas, which causes a serious disease among Cranberries 
and other small Ericacee in the middle states, also appears on this 
species. The leaves of the evergreen Rhododendrons are often dis- 
colored or killed in large spots by the growth of a number of differ- 
ent fungi, like Pestalozzia and Hendersonia, and in eastern Massa- 
chusetts are not infrequently affected by a leaf disease caused by 
the growth of Phyllosticta Saccardoi, Thuemen. 
