GREAT RHODODENDRON; ROSE BAY (Rhododendron maxi- 

 mum, Linn.). Shrub to 35 feet. Evergreen shrub or small tree 

 with broad head of twisted limbs. Buds large, scaly, terminal 

 contain flower clusters; axillary, small, contain leafy shoots. 

 Sap considered poisonous. Bark reddish brown, scaly; 

 limbs gray, at first rusty hairy. Wood hard, pale brown, 

 heavy, close-textured. Leaves narrow-oblong, plain, pointed 

 at apex, and tapering to short, stout petiole; thick, dark 

 green, leathery, evergreen, pale beneath, 4 to 10 inches long. 

 Flowers in large umbels in June; perfect, bell-shaped, pink, 

 white or purplish, shaded, with spotted corolla throat. Fruit 

 a woody, o-celled, many-seeded capsule. Dist.: Shaded sit- 

 uations, in peat or sandy loam, New Brunswick to Florida; 

 Gulf States to Louisiana; west to Lake Erie, but rare north 

 of Pennsylvania; Arkansas southward. Forms jungles on 

 mountain slopes in East Tennessee and North Carolina. 



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