100 THE AZALEAS OF THE OLD WOULD 



Bot. Mag. XCVII. t. 5905 (1871). Franchet & Savatier, Enum. PL Jap. 

 I. 289 (1875). Matsumura & Yatabe, Nippon Shokub. 163 (1884). 

 Matsumura, PL Nikko, 71 (1894); Shokub. 250 (1895); Ind. PL Jap. II. 

 pt. 2, 464 (1912). Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. For. Jap. II. t. 62, figs. 19-27 

 (1908). Hayata, Veget. Mt. Fuji, 66 (1911). Ito, Icon. PL Jap. I. No. 

 5, 1, t. 17 (1913). W. Watson, Rhodod. and Azaleas, 112 (1911), in 

 part. 



Azalea mollis Andr6 in III. Hort. XVIII. 132, t. 68 (1871), not Blume. 

 Suringar in Gartenfl. LVII. 505 (1908). 



Japan: Hondo, prov. Suruga, Mt. Fuji, alt. 600-1000 m., open 

 country, May 8, 1914, E. H. Wilson (No. 6657); same locality, July 

 28, 1891, K. Watanabe (Herb. Gray); prov. Shinano, Karuizawa, 

 alt. 1000 m. May, 1903, B. Hayata; prov. Shimotsuke, between Lake 

 Chuzenji and Yumoto, open country, alt. 1600-1800 m., June 24, 

 1914, E. H. Wilson (No. 6872); same locality, September 5, 1892, 

 C. S. Sargent; same locality, August 11, 1905, J. G. Jack; Nikko re- 

 gion, alt. 500-18QO m., May 22, flowers, October 19, fruit, 1914, E. 

 H. Wilson (Nos. 6727, 7670) ; prov. Uzen, foot of Adzuma-san, grassy 

 slopes, alt. 1000 m., October 23, 1914, E. H. Wilson (No. 7192); 

 without locality, June 7, 1913, K. Sakurai; prov. Rikuchu, round base 

 of Hayachine-san, June 4, 1905, U. Faurie (No. 6784). Hokkaido, 

 prov. Oshima, Hakodate, cultivated, 1855, C. Wright (Herb. Gray). 



Cultivated: Arnold Arboretum (Nos. 861-1, 861-4, 861-5, 

 861-6); Hort. Kew, May 18 (flowers), August 7 (leaves), 1880, 

 G. Nicholson (No. 807, Herb. Arnold Arboretum). 



This handsome species is common over a great part of Hondo, the main island 

 of Japan. I am familiar with it from the neighborhood of Kamo, on the Kwan-sai 

 railroad beyond Nara, northward to the foot-hills of Hayachine-san. It is a special 

 feature of the moorlands round the base of sacred Fuji-san and of Ontake-san, and 

 of open grass and scrub-clad places in the Nikko region and elsewhere. Matsu- 

 mura reports it from Higo province in Kyushu but I have not seen it wild anywhere 

 in this southern island. It is cultivated in and around Hakodate in Hokkaido but 

 I can find no record of its growing wild in that island. Wherever I have seen this 

 Azalea wild it was scattered in open grass and scrub-clad country, never in woods 

 or dense thickets and obviously it is sun-loving. It is a sturdy-growing plant, with 

 fairly stout, erect shoots, as much as two metres high and a metre through; usually, 

 however, it is less than a metre high and broad. The flowering season is from 

 about the last week in April to the end of June, according to locality. The flowers 

 appear before the leaves, and the corolla varies in color from orange-red to flame- 

 red or almost red; they are broad funnel-shape, from 5 to 6 cm. across and the 

 flowers are produced 6 to 12 together in umbellate corymbs at the end of shoots. 

 The calyx is small, obtusely 5-lobed with many (rarely few) straight, bristle-like 

 gray hairs; the flower-stalk and annual shoot are also clothed with similar bristles, 

 though occasionally these are wanting on the foot-stalks. The outside of the 

 corolla is velutinous. The stamens, five in number and of unequal length, are 

 shorter than the corolla, with pilose filaments and dark brown anthers. The 

 ovary is villose, and the fruit is erect, oblong-ovoid to cylindric, from 2 to 2.5 



