ENUMERATION OF THE SPECIES 123 



An upright, rather irregularly branched shrub with spreading branches, occa- 

 sionally 5 m. tall; young branchlets puberulous and sparingly pilose at first, soon 

 glabrous, light red-brown at the end of the season, becoming brown or grayish 

 brown the second year; older branches grayish brown with flaky or shredding 

 bark; floral winter-buds large, broadly ovoid, obtuse, with 7 to 10 orbicular-ovate 

 scales, rounded or the upper ones truncate or slightly emarginate at apex, mu- 

 cronulate, the basal ones acuminate, glabrous or the upper and inner ones minutely 

 puberulous, white-ciliate and sometimes glandular on the margin. Leaves elliptic 

 or elliptic-oblong, acuminate, cuneate at base, 5 to 12 cm. long and 2 to 5 cm. 

 broad, usually slightly undulate on the margin, ciliate, dark green and glabrous above 

 except the sparingly and finely villose midrib, rarely sparingly strigillose, light 

 green beneath and glabrous or sparingly pilose on the midrib; petioles slender, 3 to 

 7 mm. long, glabrous or sparingly pilose. Flowers appearing in May before the 

 leaves, in 5- to 8-flowered umbel-like racemes; pedicels 0.5 to 1.5 cm. long, with 

 short-stipitate glands, sometimes sparingly so; calyx oblique, with shallow rounded 

 lobes, erose-glandular on the margin; corolla rotate-campanulate 2.5 to 3 cm. long, 

 two-lipped, light rose-colored with orange or red-orange dots at the base of the 

 upper lobes, glabrous, tube very short, about 5 mm. long, the lobes oblong, rounded 

 at apex, the upper lip less deeply divided, with the middle lobe exterior in bud; 

 stamens usually 7, sometimes 5 or 6, unequal, the longer ones exceeding the 

 corolla; filaments glabrous; anthers ellipsoid, 1 to 2 mm. long, pinkish; style 2.5 to 

 3 cm. long, longer than stamens, glabrous or with few stipitate glands near the 

 base. Capsule narrow-oblong, 1.2 to 1.5 cm. long, with a thin narrow keel on 

 back of the rather thin valves. 



This species is very distinct from all other American Azaleas and seems most 

 nearly related to the Japanese R. Albrechtii Maxim, which, however, differs con- 

 siderably in its 10 stamens, the more pubescent obovate leaves and the shorter 

 and thicker more woody, hispid capsule. It is restricted to the higher mountains 

 of western North Carolina, where it grows at an altitude of from 3000 to 5500 feet 

 on mountain slopes, in ravines and sometimes in swamps. It was first discovered 

 in 1878 on Balsam Mountain near Webster, Jackson County, by George Vasey 

 and soon afterward introduced into cultivation, for in 1880 the Arnold Arboretum 

 received a living plant from G. C. Woolson & Co. of Passaic, New Jersey. It has 

 proved perfectly hardy near Boston and is now well known in gardens in this 

 country as well as in Europe and valued for its handsome pale pink flowers appear- 

 ing in great profusion in spring before the leaves unfold. It has been found escaped 

 from cultivation near Halifax, Mass., as shown by the following specimens in the 

 herbarium of the New England Botanical Club: swamp near an abandoned nur- 

 sery, May 30, 1907, A. S. Pease (No. 9998); sandy soil, probably part of old 

 nursery, May 30, 1907, J. A. Cushman (No. 653). 



Rhododendron Vaseyi f. album Nicholson in Kew Hand-list Arb. II. 

 57 (1896), as var., name only. Bean, Trees & Shrubs Gt. Brit. II. 384 

 (1914), as var. Rehder in Mitt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. XXIV. (1915), 

 225 (1916). 



This form with white flowers was found at the Arnold Arboretum and also in 

 Kew Garden^ among seedlings of the typical form; all transitions from pure pink 

 to white can be found among seedlings of this species. 



Gard. LVI. 119 (1899). Gartenwelt, XVI. 231 (1912); XXII. 363 (1918). Silva- 

 Tarouca, Urn. Freil-Laubgeh. fig. 64 (1913). Gard. LXXIX. 302 (1915). Gard. 

 Mag. XXX. 259 (1920). Gar tenschonheit, I. 33 (1920). 



