T 1 1 E 



Canadian HoirncuLTiii^LST. 



Vol. XX. 



1897. 



No. I. 



THE RHODODENDRON. 



" Rhodoia ! if the sages ask thee why 

 This charm is wasted on tlie earth and sky. 

 Tell them, dear, if eyes were oiade for seeing. 

 Then beaut j' is its o\mi excuse for being." 



HE Rhododendron is one of 

 the most popular shrubs 

 cultivated in the English 

 gardens. The moist climate 

 of that country, and its 

 moderate temperature afford 

 conditions favorable to the 

 cultivation of many of the finest and 

 most showy varieties, most of which are 

 entirely too tender to be grown in even 

 the southern portions of our province. 

 Hooker, the eminent botanist, describes 

 a plantation at Embly, near Romsey, 

 of which we read about eight years ago. 

 He said : " They were planted thirty 

 years ago, the largest number in an 

 exceedingly wet bottom of deep, black 

 peat, full of drains and sheltered with 

 sloping banks of Birch and Fir, but 

 with much Laurel, large Kalmias and 

 Azaleas near the road. 



"The shrubs had been cut continu- 

 ally to keep the road clear, and finally 

 made a bank from seventeen to eighteen 



feet high. They were scattered over 

 the high ground (a dry, black sand) for 

 two miles. There were, perhaps, a 

 dozen of R. maximum, about three 

 times as many R. arboreum and hybrid 

 scarlets. R. ponticum and R. roseum 

 seedsd themselves to great extent, con- 

 sequently producing a great variety in 

 shape, size and color of the flowers. 

 The largest single specimen plant of 

 Rhododendron was one hundred and 

 fifty feet round, and twenty feet high. 

 Ttie American species flourished with 

 great vigor, one specimen measured nine 

 and one half feet in height, and forty- 

 one and one-half feet in circumference." 

 To those of our readers who have 

 never read up about the Rhododendron 

 it will be a surprise to learn that over 

 IOC species have been discovered in 

 various parts of the world. Its favorite 

 habitat is the Himalayan mountains of 

 India, where about forty distinct varie- 

 ties have been discovered, some of them 



