16 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



unnatural as to train an American elm into a pyramid, or a Nor- 

 way spruce into a standard with a high stem and a globular head. 

 Nothing in the line of ornamental plants under glass can sur- 

 pass the gorgeousness of the azalea, with its rich and varied colors, 

 and it is not probable or perhaps possible that any plant will ever 

 exceed it in beauty. A large conservatory of these plants, when 

 in full bloom, may be truly described as effulgent with beauty and 

 glory. 



Charles M. Hovey said that the Azalea had long been a pet of 

 his, and Col. Wilder had given us a fresh reminder of its beauty. 

 Mr. Hovey was one of the first to raise new varieties from seed in this 

 country, having in 1837 or 8 sown a large quantity'- of seed and 

 produced a great many fine seedlings ; among them a white variety 

 which he named alba crisjoiflora, and which he thought scarcely 

 surpassed. Some of the plants then raised are now very large 

 specimens. Fine large plants can only be obtained by grafting. 

 He agreed with Col. Wilder that the formal training, practised by 

 some cultivators is, in a certain sense, unnatural. Still, to pro- 

 duce a well shaped bush we cannot dispense with pruning, and 

 the best formed specimens were made by a combination of tying 

 and pruning. Grafting must be done when the wood is compara- 

 tively soft ; he had inserted thirty, forty, or fift}' grafts into a sin- 

 gle plant. Some of these will not be in the right place and will 

 require tying to a certain extent, in order to have the w^ood equally 

 distributed. 



The production of new seedling varieties is of great importance. 

 By hybridizing with Azalea amoena, we might get a hardy race, 

 better perhaps than from A. mollis, and also an evergreen one, 

 which would be desirable. We cannot do much with A. ovata,, 

 though a beautiful species and probably hardy. His method had 

 been to winter the seedlings in a cool house and then to plant out 

 in the ground as soon as the weather would admit. He had now 

 two or three thousand plants which can be set out in the ground, 

 and, if taken up in time and properly treated, they will bloom in 

 the greatest profusion. 



Like all plants of the Heath family, they require some protection 

 for the roots. They will continue to bloom after being brought 

 into the house. No plants are so quickly injured in the buds by 

 frost ; an early frost before the plants were housed, which did not 

 destroy the heliotrope, injured every flower bud of the azaleas, 



