Handbook of Trees of the IsTorthern States and Canada. 



;09 



The Pvose Hay is familiar as a slinih to iiio-t 

 people, wlio never lliiiik of it as a ti'.'c but 

 in the Alleghany Mountains, of Tennessee and 

 North and South Carolina, it becomes a bushy 

 round-topped tree, 30 to 40 ft. in height, with 

 crooked and more or less inclined trunk 10 or 

 12 in. in diameter. We see in these individuals 

 tlie appropriateness of one of its names — 

 Vircat h'lioilodendron. It is rare and locil, and 

 in shrubby form, in the northern part of its 

 range, only occupying certain cold swamps, but 

 to the southward it becomes abundant, occupy- 

 ing mountain-slopes and intervales alike, and 

 is commonly scattered as an undergrowth 

 through forests among other trees, or in places 

 forming almost impenetrable thickets of con- 

 siderable e.xtent. The beauty of the Rhodo- 

 dendron in flower is scarcely surpassed by any 

 other tree or shrub of the American forests, 

 and one's first visit to its haunts in the flowe.- 

 ing season is sure to be long remembered. 



The wood is line-grained ar.d hard, b;it rather 



brittle, and useful in turnerj^ for tool-handles. 



etc. A cubic foot when absolutely dry weighs 



39.28 Ibs.i 



Leaves oblons-lancoolato. ohlanccolato or ol)lonu'. 

 4-12 in. long. aciUo at liotli ends, revolute iu tlic 

 hud. ferruginous tomentose at first but at ma- 

 turity lustrous dark green above, paler beneatl). 

 thick and stiff. Floirrrs (.Tune-.Iul.v I in 1(5-24- 

 flowored umbels 4-."i in. across, witli slender pink 

 viscid-pubescent pedicels springing from the axils 

 •)f the scales of the inflorescence buds : calyx- 

 lol)es oblong, rounded ; corolla campanulate, gib- 

 l)ous posteriorly, about 1 in. long, varying from 

 rose-color or purplish to white, cleft to the middle 

 lobes rounded, the upper one yellow spotted in- 

 side. Fruit capsule olilong-ovoid, M> in. long, 

 glandular-hispid, opening and liberating its seeds 

 in autumn and persisting during the following 

 winter.^ 



1. A. \V., .\ll. 2.S4. 



2. For genus see p. 4.'i7. 



