372 RHODODENDRON 



1 to | in. across, borne in a small terminal cluster of four to six ; stamens ten, 

 hairy at the base ; calyx-lobes small, angular. 



Native of Siberia, Korea, etc. This species is allied to R. lapponicum, 

 and is often supplied for it, but is distinguished by the more numerous hairy 

 stamens. It blossoms early, from January to March according to the mildness 

 or otherwise of the weather. It may be seen probably in finest condition in 

 this country at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, where I saw it some years 

 ago on a ledge in the rock garden. The practice is to peg down the 

 stems and cover them with soil ; they then root into it, and in this way 

 produce a much better furnished mass of branches than the plant left to 

 itself can do. 



R. POLYLEPIS, Franchet 



(R. Harrovianum, Hemsley, Bot. Mag., t. 8309.) 



An evergreen shrub, 5 or 6 ft., perhaps more, high ; young branches scaly. 

 Leaves aromatic, narrowly oval-lanceolate, ij to 3 ins. long, dark shining 

 green and smooth above, densely scaly beneath ; stalk J in. long. Flowers 



2 ins. across, pale purple, spotted with yellow on the upper side; stamens 

 ten, hairy at the base, protruded beyond the corolla ; calyx-lobes very short 

 and rounded ; flower-stalk f in. long and, like the calyx and ovary, scaly. 



Native of W. China ; introduced for Messrs Veitch by Wilson about 1904. 

 It is closely allied to R. concinnum, being distinguished chiefly by the 

 protruding stamens and usually wrinkled leaves. 



R. PONTICUM, Linnceus. 



(Bot. Mag., t. 650.) 



An evergreen shrub, 8 to 15 ft. high, twice as wide as it is high, some- 

 times forming a trunk i ft. through like a small tree ; branchlets soon smooth. 

 Leaves 2 to 9 ins. long, f to 3 ins. wide ; narrow oblong or oblanceolate, 

 very dark glossy green above, paler beneath, quite smooth on both surfaces. 

 Flowers purple, suffused more or less with pink, 2 ins. across, produced during 

 June in terminal heads 4 to 6 ins. wide ; calyx small, with five thickened, 

 shallow lobes. 



Native of Spain and Portugal, but more especially of that portion of 

 Armenia known to the ancients as Pontus ; introduced in 1763. No rhodo- 

 dendron has obtained so secure a footing in Britain as this, and it now 

 shares with the cherry laurel the distinction of being the commonest of 

 introduced evergreens. It is certainly a most useful shrub. In thin wood- 

 land it will make thick masses of evergreerj undergrowth, and give a fine 

 display of blossom annually. In thicker woods it will also live, but it is apt 

 to become thin and ungainly, and does not flower well. The worst possible 

 use to which it is put (and it shares the indignity with the cherry laurel), is 

 being cropped over annually and made to form a low flat surface. But 

 where such a low evergreen covering is desired in semi-shady spots, it is one 

 of the best available, although it is better to use a naturally dwarf shrub like 

 Berberis Aquifolium. It is seen at its best in open spots fully exposed to 

 the sun, where it can take its natural form and spread in its own way, and 

 from its habit of taking root at the branches there is scarcely a limit to its 

 extension. It must be said, indeed, that in spite of its great beauty the 

 Pontic rhododendron needs occasionally the curb of a strong hand. I know 

 more than one demesne in the south of England which is overrun with the 

 shrub to such an extent as to have become monotonous. 



Hundreds of thousands of young plants are used every year as stocks on 

 which the garden varieties are grafted, and to this practice, no doubt, the 



