THE AZALEA, OK SWAMP HONEYSUCKLE. 



THE Azaleas are favorite flowering shrubs in florists' 

 collections at the present day, and are remarkable for 

 the delicacy of their flowers and the purity of their 

 colors. In New England are only two species, the 

 Swamp Honeysuckle and the colored Azalea, a prostrate 

 shrub bearing pink flowers. It cannot be doubted that 

 the interest attached to a flower is greatly increased by 

 finding it in the wild- wood. I have frequently observed 

 this effect and the opposite upon suddenly meeting a 

 garden flower in a field or wood-path, or a wild flower in 

 the garden. When the Swamp Honeysuckle is seen grow- 

 ing with the fairer Azaleas of the florists in cultivated 

 grounds, its inferiority is most painfully apparent ; but 

 when I encounter it in some green solitary dell in the 

 forest, bending over the still waters, where all the scenes 

 remind me only of nature, I am affected with more 

 pleasure than by a display of the more beautiful species 

 in a garden or greenhouse. 



The Swamp Honeysuckle is one of the most interesting 

 of the New England flowering shrubs, and a very well 

 known species. It comes into flower about the first of 

 July, and is recognized by its fragrance, resembling that 

 of the marvel of Peru, by the similarity of its flowers to 

 those of the woodbine, and their glutinous surface. It 

 is found only in wet places, and delights in suspending 

 its flowers over a gently flowing stream, the brink of a 

 pool, or the margin of a pond, blending its odors with 

 those of water-lilies, and borrowing a charm from the re- 



