SCOTTISH GAEDENS 



drop that cumbrous polysyllable and adopt the 

 American name "rose bay" or "rose laurel"? 



The presence of these fine plants dates from the 

 'forties, when Sir Joseph Hooker, with youthful 

 ardour, was revelling in the floral wealth of the 

 Himalayas. Dr. Campbell, of the family of Oronsay, 

 who founded the sanatorium of Darjeeling in 1835, 

 shared Hooker's enthusiasm, and sent home quantities 

 of seed, some of which found its way to Stonefield. 

 A noble crop has sprung from it. Here are trees of 

 Rhododendron arboreum 30 feet high with blood-red, 

 pink or white blossoms, and with stems thicker than 

 any wood-nymph's waist; JR. Falconeri 25 feet high, 

 carrying among its great felted leaves between 200 

 and 300 trusses of waxy bells ; R. eximium, probably 

 a local variety of the last-named, loaded with bloom ; 

 R. barbatum, the bearded rose-bay, in both varieties, 

 one a month later in bloom than the other, both 

 excelling all their kind in the glow of blood-red 

 flowers. R. Thomsoni stands 15 feet high and 20 feet 

 in diameter, and among other treasures may be men- 

 tioned Rhododendron grande (argenteum), a shy flowerer, 

 but worth growing for its splendid foliage alone; 

 R. niveum with purple flowers and leaves lined with 

 white peau de Subde R. Hodgsoni with leaves like 

 Falconeri but with rosy flowers, R. fragrantissimum, 

 campanulatum and ciliatum, all revelling in conditions 

 of season and temperature as unlike their native 

 levels of from 8000 to 12,000 feet as one could well 

 imagine. In the Himalayas, all growth is restrained 



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