ENUMERATION OF THE SPECIES 133 



SOUTH CAROLINA. Oconee County : Newry, April 26, 1906, H. D. 

 House (No. 1934, 1935, 1936; in Nat. Herb.). 



GEORGIA. Gwinnett County : Thompson's Mills, May 2, 1909, 

 H. A. Allard (No. 181, in Nat. Herb.). Dekalb County: on and 

 about Stone Mountain, May 1-18, 1895, J. K. Small; base of Stone 

 Mountain, May 3, 1899, C. S. Sargent and Wm. M. Canby; without 

 precise locality, May 23, 1897, H. Eggert (in N. Y. Bot. Gard. Herb.). 

 Fulton County : Atlanta, May, 1869, Wm. M. Canby (in Nat. Herb.). 

 Baldwin County : Milledgeville, Samuel Boykin (in Herb. Philadelphia 

 Acad. Nat. Sci.); south of Milledgeville, May 6, 1914, T. G. Harbison 

 (Nos. 1561-1570). Muskogee County : Columbia, above the falls, 

 1912, T. G. Harbison. Richmond County : sand hills at Belair, 

 A. Cuthbert, April 26, 1903; near Bath, April 29, 1914, C. S. Sargent; 

 near Augusta, April 29 and October 7, 1914, C. S. Sargent; near 

 Hephzibah, May 9, 1920, A. Rehder (No. 930). Screven County: 

 Ogeechee River, 1847, H. C. Pater (in Gray Herb.). Middle Georgia, 

 Dr. Leavenworth; Ocmulgee River, April, 1847, T. C. Porter (both in 

 Herb. Philadelphia Acad. Nat. Sci.). 



Though this species was introduced into cultivation more than a century ago 

 and described and figured by early European botanists it has never been recognized 

 by an American botanist. The exact date of its first discovery and of its introduc- 

 tion into cultivation is not known with certainty. It was first mentioned without 

 adequate description by Aiton in 1789 as Azalea nudiflora var. cocdnea and figured 

 three years later by Sims in the Botanical Magazine under the same name; Sims says 

 "whether it was originally introduced to the country by Mrs. Norman of Bromley 

 or by Mr. Bewick of Clapham in Surrey we cannot with certainty assert; true it is 

 that Azalea cocdnea was little known here till the sale of Mr. Bewick's plants in 

 17 "; and he adds that the plants were sold at high prices, one of them produc- 

 ing 20 guineas. Possibly plants were sent before 1789 by William Bartram, who 

 must have known this plant, as it grows in a region traversed by him in search of 

 plants. Later, in 1811, the plant was described by Willdenow as Azalea speciosa 

 from cultivated plants growing in the Berlin Botanic Garden, the origin of which is 

 not stated and it was figured by Guimpel in 1825. By Michaux it was collected near 

 Two-Sisters Ferry on the Savannah River, about twenty-five miles above Savannah, 

 and his are the first wild specimens we know. In Michaux's Flora they were con- 

 fused with Azalea calendulacea and enumerated under his var. flammea. Pursh 

 also in 1814 confused the two, though he was the first to refer Aiton's A. nudiflora 

 var. cocdnea to Michaux's var. flammea and thus identified the plant growing near 

 Savannah with Aiton's plant. I have no doubt that Aiton's, Willdenow's and 

 Michaux's plants are identical. Of Azalea nudiflora var. cocdnea there is a speci- 

 men in the British Museum which probably served for Sims's figure in the Botanical 

 Magazine. Mr. W. J. Bean kindly compared flowers of Rhododendron spedosum 

 from the specimens collected by me near Augusta, Georgia, with that specimen and 

 states that they agree with it and that A. nudiflora var. cocdnea certainly is not 

 R. calendulaceum with which it had been confused. Of A. speciosa there is a speci- 

 men in the Berlin Botanical Museum, of which Professor L. Diels obligingly sent me 

 a flower, which also agrees with the Georgia plant and not with R. calendulaceum. 



