RHODODENDRON. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. RHODODENDRON. 801 



any other hardy kind ; Atrosanguineum, 

 blood-red and early ; Caractacus, rich 

 purplish-crimson, one of the best for size 

 and colour of its flowers, gathered into 

 large compact trusses, with fine habit and 

 foliage ; Charles Bagley, cherry-red, a 

 late variety of fine colour, with good habit 

 and foliage ; Charles Dickens, bright 

 scarlet flowers, coming early as compact 

 trusses ; C. S. Sargent, rich crimson 

 flowers, fine habit ; Coerulescens, pale 

 lilac-blue or blush, strong growth, and 

 loose habit ; Coriaceum, a late kind, of 

 dwarf habit and creamy-white flowers ; 

 Delicatissimum, also late, with white 

 flowers suffused pink, fine habit, and large 

 glossy leaves ; Everestianum, one of the 

 best in its freedom of flower and dense 

 habit, flowers rosy-lilac spotted with 

 yellow, and crinkled on the margins ; 

 F. L. Ames, pale pink flowers with a band 

 of deeper rose-colour, good foliage, but 

 ungainly habit ; Guido, good habit, fine 

 trusses of rich crimson ; W. H. Sargent, 

 large crimson trusses and the darkest 

 late kind, but of poor habit ; James Bate- 

 man, fine habit and rich scarlet flowers ; 

 Kettledrum, a deep red, late kind ; King 

 of Purples, dark purple, free, and of fine 

 habit ; Lady Armstrong, pale rose, beau- 

 tifully spotted, perhaps the best pink ; 

 Lady Grey Egerton, good in foliage, 

 habit, and its immense light mauve or 

 silvery blush trusses : Mrs. C. S. Sar- 

 gent, like Everestianum, but with bright 

 pink flowers with a yellow blotch ; Mrs. 

 Harry Ingersoll, flowers of deep rosy- 

 lilac blotched green or yellow on the 

 upper lobe ; Mrs. Milner, rich crimson 

 flowers, and excellent in other ways ; Old 

 Port, distinct in its rich plum colour ; 

 Purpureum elegans, purple ; Purpureum 

 crispum, clear purple with crimped 

 petals ; Purpureum grandiflorum, the 

 best of the purples in colour, habit, and 

 freedom, flowering late ; Roseum elegans, 

 flowers deep rosy-purple, with rich glossy 

 foliage ; Roseum grandiflorum, near the 

 last. These kinds may be planted with 

 every confidence, even where the winters 

 are long and rigorous. 



INDIAN RHODODENDRONS IN SOUTH- 

 ERN ENGLAND. The following is an 

 abstract from The Garden of a paper by 

 Mr. W. J. Bean, of the Royal Gardens at 

 Kew, on the Indian Rhododendrons in 

 the London district, and therefore of in- 

 terest to growers in the home counties, 

 less favoured than many districts for the 

 growth of these fine shrubs. 



The altitudes at which these grow range 

 between 4,000 ft. and 14,000 ft., but it is 

 at heights of 10,000 ft. and upwards that 



the genus is most abundantly represented. 

 Above 12,000 ft. Sir J. Hooker says that 

 three-fourths of the whole vegetation con- 

 sists of Rhododendrons. The mean tem- 

 perature at Darjeeling (in which neigh- 

 bourhood most of the species are found) 

 does not widely differ from that of London, 

 but the extremes of heat and cold are 

 much greater here than there, and it is 

 only a few that can be said to thrive out 

 of doors really well and flower in the 

 London district, although many can re- 

 main healthy in foliage when grown in well- 

 sheltered spots. The greatest successes 

 with Himalayan Rhododendrons in the 

 British Isles have been obtained near the 

 sea in the south and south-western coun- 

 ties, where the temperature is equable 

 and moist. The districts in which they 

 are grown to greatest perfection are near 

 Swansea, in Wales, and about Falmouth, 

 in Cornwall, and also in the south of 

 England and Ireland generally, the coast 

 line all round the islands, too, being- 

 favourable. A soil which is naturally 

 peaty is no doubt the best, but not es- 

 sential ; they may be grown out of doors 

 in loam either light or moderately stiff so 

 long as lime is absent, and with plenty of 

 leaf mould. They should always, if pos- 

 sible, be planted near trees near enough 

 to be screened from the sun for a few 

 hours a day. 



The following is a list of species of 

 some proved hardy in Britain in the south- 

 ern counties and in good suitable soils. 



R. ARBOREUM. The best known of the 

 Himalayan species, and one of the most vari- 

 able. The various forms may roughly be 

 divided into two groups, the one with foliage 

 that is silvery beneath, the other having the 

 underside of the leaf covered more or less with 

 a reddish tomentum. The leaves of all are 

 from 5 ins. to 8 ins. long, the trusses rounded 

 or sometimes almost conical, with the flowers 

 closely packed, the colour of the bell-shaped 

 corolla varying from rich crimson to almost 

 white. The plants known under the following 

 names belong to the arboreum group, some 

 having been given specific rank : Cam/M&tt, 

 flowers rosy purple, leaves rusty beneath ; 

 limbatum, flowers rosy purple, leaves silvery 

 beneath ; nilagiricum, flowers rosy, leaves 

 reddish beneath ; cinnaniotneum, flowers al- 

 most white ; Windsori, flowers and trusses 

 smaller, rich crimson. 



R. AUCKLANDI. This tender species attains 

 the dimensions of a small tree, its stems being 

 of a grey colour with the bark pealing off. A 

 hybrid between it and Hookeri called Kewense 

 (raised at Kew in 1874) has flowers of a pale 

 flesh colour, not so large as those of Aucklandi, 

 but more numerous in the truss. There is also 

 a very pretty hybrid known as Aucklandi 

 hybriduin, which is hardy in the London dis- 



