New yerfey, Rapaapo. 169 



THE Mayflowers, as the Swedes call them, 

 were plentiful in the woods where-ever I 

 went to-day ; efpecially on a dry foil, or 

 one that is fomewhat moift. The Swedes 

 have given them this name, becaufe they 

 are in full bloffom in May. Some of the 

 Swedes and the Dutch call them Pinxter- 

 bloem, (Whitfunday flowers), as they really 

 are in bloffom about Whitfuntide. The 

 Englifh call them Wild Honeyfuckles ; and at 

 a diftance they have fome fimilarity to the 

 Honeyfuckle, or Lonlcera. Dr. Linn*us, and 

 other botanifts, call it an Azalea*. Its flowers 

 were now open, and added a new ornament 

 to the woods, being little inferior to the 

 flowers of the honeyfuckle and Hedyfarum. 

 They fit in a circle round the ftem's ex- 

 tremity, and have either a dark red or a 

 lively red colour ; but, by {landing for 

 fome time, the fun bleaches them, and at lafl 

 they get a whitifh hue. I know not why 

 Golden calls them yellow ~j-. The height 

 of the bum is not always alike. Some 

 were as tall as a full grown man, and taller, 

 others were but low, and fome were not 

 above a palm from the ground $ yet they 



were 



* Azalea nudiflora. Linn. Spec. Plant, p. 214. Aza- 

 lea ram is infraflores nudis. Gron. Yirg. 21. 



f Axalea erefta, foliis ovatis, integrh, alternis^ fort Iutto 3 

 fiIofo,j>r#cQci> Cold, Ebor, 25, 



