454 The Azalea and its Varieties. 



acters, have been produced by hybridizing, or cross breeding, 

 between them ; and also between them and some of the 

 evergreen rhododendrons, and also of the other species of 

 azalea which have been introduced. These are now so nu- 

 merous, and so much intermixed, that it is useless to separate 

 them ; neither, as new varieties are constantly being produced, 

 would a list of their names, or of a selection from them, be 

 of any material use. They should be seen when in flower, 

 and the varieties then selected. The great American nurseries 

 in the neighborhood of Bagshot and Woking, in Surrey, 

 afford a rich floral treat through the blooming months ; and 

 the inhabitants of the metropolis and other parts will also 

 have an opportunity of witnessing a magnificent display of 

 them in the gardens of the Royal Botanic Society in the 

 Regent's Park, where an exhibition of them, on an extensive 

 scale, is to take place during the blooming season, namely, in 

 May and June. 



FORMING THE BEDS. 



The space to be occupied by the azalea, whether in its 

 young or matured state, must be well drained ; experience 

 has proved this over and over again, although they want 

 plenty of moisture while blooming and growing. But drained 

 ground is not necessarily dried ground ; for the very fact of 

 giving the water a free current instead of allowing it to be 

 stagnant, increases the fertilizing qualities of land instead of 

 taking anything away. The land being drained, dig out the 

 whole space two feet deep, or at least eighteen inches. The 

 best plan is to do this in four feet widths the whole length of 

 the ground, leaving the natural soil eighteen inches wide 

 between these beds or slips. These spaces are to be filled 

 with three parts turfy peat from a common, full of the fibrous 

 half-decomposed vegetation, broken into small pieces, and 

 one part loam from rotted turves off" a meadow. This com- 

 post is to be well mixed together, and the beds filled with it 

 and six inches above the surface, left to settle down, as it 

 will naturally lay light at first. The beds thus made up are 

 to be allowed to settle down tolerably solid. 



