344 RHODODENDRON 



dendrons. It is remarkably late in starting into growth, never making a 

 move at Kew until July ; the lower part of the young shoots are then furnished 

 with lurid crimson scales covered with sticky glands. f It inhabits semi-wooded 

 places, and Mr Wilson recommends half shade for it. I believe the finest 

 plants in the country are at Caerhays Castle, Cornwall, where it has already 

 borne flowers In June 1910, I measured a leaf on a young plant at Coombe 

 Wood which was 13 ins. by 5 ins. In China it does not flower until July. 



R. AZALEOIDES, Desfontaines. 



(R. odoratum, Loddiges ; R. fragrans, Paxton ; Mag. of Bot., x., t. 147.) 



An evergreen (in hard winters semi-evergreen) bush, 4 to 6 ft. high, of 

 twiggy habit and with interlaced branches ; young shoots downy and viscid. 

 Leaves oblanceolate, 2 to 4 ins. long, ^ to i^r ins. wide ; tapering gradually 

 towards the base, more abruptly to the short point ; dark glossy green above, 

 glaucous beneath, quite smooth except when very young ; stalk to in. 

 long. Flowers very fragrant, white, deeply but unequally tinged with purplish 

 lilac, about ij ins. long and wide, produced in June and July in terminal 

 clusters of twelve to twenty blossoms. Corolla funnel-shaped, downy outside 

 and in the throat ; stamens ten, very hairy at the base ; calyx-lobes linear- 

 triangular, | to J in. long, downy ; flower-stalk f to I in. long, downy. 



According to Loudon this hybrid was raised about 1820, and he gives 

 R. ponticum and some deciduous azalea as the parents. Others give the 

 parentage as R. maximum + viscosum, which may be correct. It is un- 

 doubtedly a hybrid between the two great sections of the genus, and viscosum 

 is, 1 believe, certainly one parent. It is a- most charming shrub, flowering 

 later than most of its kind, and with great freedom. There are few shrubs 

 blooming in June and July so fragrant and pleasing. Increased easily by 

 late July cuttings. 



There are probably several hybrids of an origin indentical, or nearly so, 

 with that of R. azaleoides ; or, as frequently happens, the progeny raised 

 from the original seed-pod may have varied. Very closely allied to it is 



R. GOWENJANUM, Sweet. This has similarly shaped leaves also glaucous 

 beneath, and the flowers are similarly coloured. They differ, however, in 

 being of a darker shade and the calyx-lobes are narrower and more strap- 

 shaped. Raised in the Earl of Carnarvon's garden at Highclere about 1825. 

 (See Sweet's Brit. Flower Garden^ ser. i., t. 263). 



R. CARTONI (Bot. Reg., t. 1449) was raised from the same batch of seeds 

 as R. Gowenianum, and is very similar. 



R. BARBATUM, Wallich. 



An evergreen shrub or small tree, the bark peeling from the branches and 

 leaving them blue-grey and smooth ; winter buds viscid ; branches yellowish, 

 sometimes smooth, sometimes bristly. Leaves in a terminal cluster, oblong, 

 heart-shaped at the base, terminated by a short, fine point ; 4 to 9 ins. long, 

 i to 3 ins. wide ; dark dull green and smooth above, pale and usually smooth 

 beneath ; stalk \ to i in. long, conspicuously bristly on the upper side and at 

 the base of the" midrib. Flowers densely packed in a hemispherical truss 

 about 4 ins. wide, blood-red. Corolla bell-shaped, i^ ins. across, five-lobed ; 

 stamens ten ; calyx with five smooth, ovate lobes, in. long. 



Native of the Himalaya up to 12,000 ft. ; introduced about 1849. This 

 rhododendron is hardy in a sheltered spot at Kew, where it flowers in April. 

 It is somewhat gaunt of habit, but worth growing for its marvellous richness 

 of colour. It is, of course, much finer in Cornwall and similar places. There 



