30 THE AZALEAS OF THE OLD WOULD 



It is always unfortunate when a selected or garden form has to do duty as the 

 type of a species. Such is the case here and the result is that the phylogenetic 

 order is inverted. Under the name of " Kirishima-tsutsuji " this plant has for cen- 

 turies been grown in Japanese gardens. By this name it is mentioned by Kaempfer 

 (Amoen. Exot. fasc. V. 849 [1712]), and his description is perfectly accurate. It is 

 a densely branched, twiggy plant, seldom more than a metre high and usually less, 

 and has small, scarlet, slightly scented flowers. Like all its relatives it is exceed- 

 ingly floriferous, and in April and early May, as Kaempfer says, the whole plant 

 appears blood red. In the autumn the leaves are lustrous and assume fine crimson 

 tints. The typical form has rather pointed corolla-lobes, as shown in Lindley's 

 figure, and this is the one so abundantly grown around Tokyo and Yokohama. At 

 Kurume in Kyushu this typical form is called " Hiryu." In the nursery district 

 round Osaka a form with rounded corolla-lobes is grown and sold as the Kirishima 

 Azalea, and it is this form that is grown in many western gardens as the real R. ob- 

 tusum Planch. At Kurume what appears to be this form is called " Hino-tsukasa." 

 A hose-in-hose form of the type is grown around Tokyo as "Yayegiri" and at 

 Kurume as " Yayehiryu." In addition a number of other slight forms are grown, 

 some of which are mentioned by Komatsu. 



Like a number of other Japanese Azaleas this plant was first sent to western 

 gardens from China. Robert Fortune found it in the Pou-shan Azalea gardens 

 near Shanghai, and sent it to the Horticultural Society of London in 1844. For- 

 tune saw in the same Chinese garden the hose-in-hose (semi-double) form. 

 Fortune's introduction was named and figured by Lindley. The figure shows the 

 obovate, rounded, obtuse, mucronate summer leaves of the previous year and two 

 newly developed elliptic-lanceolate, acute spring leaves. Too little attention has 

 been paid to the fact that the red-flowered species of this section of Rhododendron 

 all have dimorphic leaves. Those which are formed immediately after the flowers 

 open are from lanceolate to ovate or elliptic in shape, acute, light green in color 

 and membraneous in texture. The "spring leaves" are followed by "summer 

 leaves," which are smaller, more or less obovate in shape, obtuse or rounded at the 

 apex, dark green and fairly coriaceous. These spring leaves are normally de- 

 ciduous and the summer leaves persistent, but climate exercises a strong in- 

 fluence, the colder it is the more deciduous the leaves, and vice versa. In the 

 early summer when the larger spring leaves predominate, the plant presents a very 

 different appearance to what it does in late autumn or early spring when the small 

 obovate summer leaves only are present. The overlooking or inappreciation of 

 this simple fact has resulted in much confusion in the classification of the species 

 and forms. 



Now as to the origin of R. obtusum. Its name " Kirishima Azalea " would appear 

 to suggest its original habitat. Working on this clue I visited Mt. Kirishima and 

 am convinced that the so-called " Kirishima Azalea " is simply a color form of the 

 Azalea so extraordinarily abundant on this mountain and hereunder referred to as 

 f . japonicum. Long ago some pilgrim to this sacred mountain took back a plant 

 or plants as a souvenir, planted it in his garden and from it (or them) has sprung 

 all the plants of this particular Azalea in gardens to-day. The Japanese have 

 always been fond of making pilgrimages to their sacred shrines and mountains, 

 and their houses and gardens are often museums filled with souvenirs of such 

 visits. The Azalea known as amoena is unquestionably of like origin, and so 

 too is " Hinodegiri," a more recent comer but an established favorite in our gardens. 

 Further, the race of Azaleas known as " Kurume Azaleas," with which we are 

 only just now becoming acquainted, is a garden product derived by long cultiva- 

 tion from the same common stock the vari-colored Azalea of Mt. Kirishima, 

 f . japonicum Wils. 



