SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. ERICACEZ. 
150 
sapwood. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.6303, a cubic foot weighing 39.28 
pounds. It is occasionally made into the handles of tools, and has been used as a substitute for boxwood 
in engraving. A decoction of the leaves is occasionally used in domestic practice in the treatment of 
rheumatism.’ 
The earliest account of Rhododendron maximum appears in the Appendix to Catesby’s Natural 
History of Carolina? published in 1748. According to Aiton,’ it was first cultivated in Europe twelve 
years earlier by Peter Collinson in his garden near London. 
As a garden plant Rhododendron maximum is one of the hardiest and most easily cultivated 
of all Rhododendrons, although the young branchlets, rismg above and partly concealing the flower- 
clusters, make it less showy when in bloom than those species which do not make their annual growth 
until after the flowers have faded. It flourishes in all soils not impregnated with lime, which is fatal 
to Rhododendrons; it is easily raised from seed and easily transplanted, and it produces its clusters of 
lovely slightly fragrant flowers at midsummer, long after those of the other species have faded. Before 
the general introduction into gardens of the hybrids of the Catawbiense race, with larger and more 
brilliant flowers, Ahododendron maximum was more valued and more frequently planted than at 
present. Its blood can be traced in several distinct and beautiful hybrids.‘ 
1 B. S. Barton, Coll. ed. 2, i. 18.— Bigelow, Med. Bot. iii. 101, 
t. 51. —Griffith, Med. Bot. 428.— Porcher, Resources of Southern 
Fields and Forests, 380.— U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 1907. 
2 Chameerhododendros, lauri- folio semper virens, floribus bullatis 
corymbosis, ii. Appx. 17, t. 17, f. 2. 
Kalmia folits lanceolato-ovatis nitidis subtus ferrugineis, corymbosis 
terminalibus, Miller, Dict. Icon. ii. 152, t. 228. 
Ledum lauro-cerasi folio, Linnzus, Amen. ii. 201. 
Rhododendron foliis nitidis ovalibus, margine acuto reflexo, Clayton, 
Fil. Virgin. ed. 2, 66.— Trew, Pl. Ehret, 32, t. 66. 
8 Hort. Kew. ii. 67. — Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 1134, f. 932. 
* One of the most distinct of these hybrids was obtained in Eng- 
land many years ago by a cross with one of the white-flowered 
American Azaleas (Bot. Reg. ili. t. 195. — Bot. Mag. 1xii. t. 3454. — 
Seidel & Heynhold, Rhodoracee, 89) ; another, Rhododendron Duc 
de Brabant, was obtained by a Belgian nurseryman in 1853 from a 
cross with Rhododendron Catawbiense (FI. des Serres, viii. 220, 227, t. 
836, 837). The blood of Rhododendron maximum can be traced also 
in the well-known Catawbiense hybrid, Delicatissimum, in Rhododen- 
dron Wellsianum, raised at the Knaphill Nurseries at Woking in 
England, and in Rhododendron Madame van Houtte (Fl. des Serres, 
xv. 199, t. 1606). 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 
Puate CCXXXVIII. RuopvopEnpRon MAXIMUM. 
. Diagram of a flower. 
A stamen, enlarged. 
Ot PR wd 
. An ovule, much magnified. 
A flowering branch, natural size. 
. A flower, the corolla removed, natural size. 
- Vertical section of a flower, the corolla removed, enlarged. 
PuatE CCXXXIX. Ruopoprenpron MAXIMUM. 
. A seed, enlarged. 
Qanprwn 
- An embryo, much magnified. 
. A branch with a cluster of ripe fruit and inflorescence-bud, natural size. 
. Cross section of a fruit, enlarged. 
A fruit, showing the open valves and the placentiferous central column, enlarged. 
- Vertical section of a seed, enlarged. 
