30 Ornamental Shrubs. 



not widely known, it is highly esteemed in the best gardens 

 of Newport, where it may be seen in considerable num- 

 bers and always in effective combinations. It is a low, 

 bushy shrub from China, from two to four feet high and 

 of a spreading habit, so that its diameter is, or can be 

 made, almost equal to its height. The evergreen foliage 

 is composed of a multitude of small leaves, which become 

 bronzy-lilac or purple in winter, and lose none of their 

 beauty, even under the severest climatic tests. In April 

 or May the bush is covered with masses of rich crimson 

 and purple blossoms, about one to one and a half inches 

 across, and exceedingly attractive. Planted in groups or 

 in rows by the pathway, it is effective the year round, and 

 all the more valuable because of its winter garb. There 

 is a variety known as Caldwelli, held to be of freer growth 

 than the original, whose blossoms are nearly twice as 

 large. It is not much known in America, but in England 

 and on the continent is said to be crowding the typical 

 form for the supremacy. Either of these makes ex- 

 cellent borders for rhododendron beds or the larger 

 azaleas, and is an acquisition for the conservatory as well 

 as for garden cultivation. 



An English writer through the London Garden speaks 

 of some of the newer forms of the azalea, most of which 

 are scarcely known in this country, if at all, and his account 

 of these is made the basis of the descriptions and charac- 

 terizations which follow. A. cayciflora resembles the 

 amoena in the hose-in-hose conformation of the flower, 

 but differs totally from it in the color of the blossoms, 

 which are bright salmon-red with a distinct orange shade. 



