126 THE AZALEAS OF NORTH AMERICA 



Handb. Laubholzk. I. 415, fig. 268 (1889). Jepson, Fl. W. Middle Cal. 

 369 (1901); ed. 2, 311 (1911). Schneider, III. Handb. Laubholzk. II. 

 501, fig. 328 1-m, 329 i-k (1911). Millais, Rhodod. 220 (1917). 



Azalea calendidacea Hooker & Arnott, Bot. Capt. Beechey Voy. 362 (1841), not 



Michaux. Bentham, PL Hartweg. 321 (1849). 



Azalea nudiflora var. ciliata Kellogg in Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. I. 60 (1855). 

 Azalea calif ornica Torrey & Gray apud Durand in Jour. Acad. Philadelphia, 



ser. 2, III. 94 (1855). Small in N. Am. Fl. XXIX. 44 (1914). 

 Azalea occidental-is Torrey & Gray in Rep. Explor. Surv. Miss. Pacif. Ocean, 



IV. 116 (1856). Hooker in Bot. Mag. LXXXIII. t. 5005 (1857). 



Howell, Fl. N. W. Coast, I. 422 (1901). 1 



A shrub to 3 m.; young branchlets soft-pubescent or glabrous, brown at the 

 end of the first season; floral winter-buds finely pubescent or sometimes nearly 

 glabrous with numerous ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate and aristate-mu- 

 cronate or mucronulate scales. Leaves elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, acute or ob- 

 tusish, gland-tipped, cuneate or attenuate at base, 3 to 9 cm. long, ciliate, thinly 

 pubescent on both surfaces, rarely nearly glabrous, at maturity chartaceous, 

 glabrous or nearly glabrous except pubescent on the midrib above and sparingly 

 strigose on the midrib and sometimes on the veins beneath; petioles rather stout, 

 1 to 5 mm. long. Flowers appearing with or after the leaves or rarely before the 

 leaves, 6 to 12 in umbel-like racemes; pedicels 0.5 to 1.5 cm. long, pubescent and 

 more or less glandular, sometimes pilose and glandless, rarely nearly glabrous; 

 sepals broadly ovate to oblong-ovate, obtuse, 1.5 to 4 or sometimes 5 mm. long, 

 densely ciliate with usually setose, gland-tipped or glandless hairs; corolla white 

 or sometimes pink with a yellow blotch on the upper lobe or on the three upper 

 lobes, the tube about 2 cm. long, or sometimes shorter, gradually dilated upwards, 

 villose and glandular-pilose outside, the lobes about as long as the tube, broad- 

 ovate, acute or acutish; stamens exserted, more than twice as long as the tube; 

 filaments pilose below the middle; anthers 2.5 to 3 mm. long, whitish; style about 

 as long or longer than stamens, finely pubescent or sometimes villose above the 

 base, rarely nearly glabrous; ovary pilose and glandular. Capsule ovate-oblong, 

 1 to 2 cm. long, setosely pilose or sometimes furnished with short gland-tipped hairs. 



This species is distributed from southern Oregon to southern California, grow- 

 ing by brooks among the mountains up to 5000 or sometimes 5800 feet altitude. 

 It is the only Azalea west of the Rocky Mountains and was first discovered during 

 the Expedition of Captain Beechey in 1827 and was also collected later by Douglas, 

 Hartweg and Burke. Hooker as well as Bentham referred it to A. calendulacea, 

 and it was not recognized as a distinct species until named in 1855 by Torrey & 

 Gray A. calif ornica and a year later by them A. occidentale. 



Rhododendron occidentale seems most closely related to R. calendulaceum, from 

 which it is easily and chiefly distinguished by the color of its flowers, which other- 

 wise in size and shape resemble those of that species more than those of other Amer- 

 ican species. It is very variable in the shape and size of its leaves, in the pubescence 

 of all its parts and also to some extent in the size of the flowers; the sepals are appar- 

 ently always well developed, never nearly obsolete, as is often the case in the Eastern 



1 ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS. COLORED PLATES: FL des Serres, XIV. t. 1432 

 (1861). Gard. XXXIV. 416, t. 673 (1888). BLACK FIGURE: Gard. Chron. ser. 2, 

 XXVI. 105, fig. 21 (1886) . 2 HABIT FIGURES: Gartenwelt, XI. 8 (1906); XV. 650 

 (1911). 



2 The legend under the wood-cut reads "flowers orange and crimson, fragrant" 

 which is hardly correct; in the text the flowers are described as deep rosy-red. 



