80 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



could wish. The flowers appear before the some- 

 what hairy, pale-green leaves. The shrub grows from 

 one to three feet high, with each stem divided into 

 four or five branchlets, which are terminated by the 

 encircling flower clusters. The rhodora is readily 

 found in the vicinity of Concord and Lexington, 

 Mass. It is also seen in cultivation in the Arnold 

 arboretum near Boston, and the Harvard Botanic 

 Garden, Cambridge. 



The great laurel (Rhododendron maxima) is 

 somewhat rare from Maine to Ohio, but quite com- 

 mon in the mountains of Pennsylvania and south- 

 ward. It has large, thick leaves, and showy pink or 

 white flowers, which bloom in July or August. It is 

 a tall shrub, from six to twenty feet high, frequently 

 found on the wooded banks of mountain streams. 

 We are not likely to meet it on the roadside, but a 

 near relation is far more apt to adorn the wooded 

 borders of the highway, at least in the southern part 

 of New York ; this is the purple azalea or pinxter 

 flower (Rhododendron nudiflorum), which grows 

 from three to six feet high, and bears handsome 

 blossoms an inch and a half across, slightly fragrant, 

 and variously colored with pink, magenta, and pale 

 yellow. This shrub is usually found on the banks of 

 sluggish streams and the borders of swamps; it is 

 not very common on the wooded roadsides in New 



