136 THE AZALEAS OF NORTH AMERICA 



expanding in April and May just before the leaves, scentless or nearly scentless, 1 in 

 6- to 12-flowered umbel-like racemes; pedicels 0.5 to 1 cm. long, strigose-pilose and 

 sometimes finely pubescent, rarely sparingly glandular; calyx-lobes semi-orbicular 

 or ovate, rarely oblong, 0.5 to 2 mm. long, long-ciliate; corolla usually light pink or 

 whitish with pink tube, funnel-form, tube 1.5 to 2 cm. long, rather gradually 

 dilated above, finely pubescent and pilose or strigose-pilose outside; lobes ovate 

 to oblong-ovate, abruptly acuminate, 1.2 to 1.6 cm. long, finely pubescent outside 

 or glabrescent toward the apex, pilose along the middle; stamens nearly three 

 times as long as the corolla-tube, declinate, the filaments pubescent below the middle; 

 anthers 2 to 2.5 mm. long, usually brownish yellow; style 5 to 6 mm. long, some- 

 what exceeding the stamens, finely pubescent at the lower third, usually purple 

 or purplish above; ovary usually densely covered with long setose glandless hairs, 

 rarely sparingly setose and nearly entirely white-tomentose. Capsule oblong to 

 narrow-oblong, narrowed upward, 1 to 2 cm. long, finely pubescent and usually 

 strigose. 



This species has the center of its distribution in the Appalachian mountains 

 from Massachusetts to northwestern North Carolina and ascends to an altitude 

 of 3800 feet; its range extends east to the coast from Massachusetts to southern 

 North Carolina and west to central New York (Monroe County), central Pennsyl- 

 vania, southern Ohio, eastern Kentucky and eastern Tennessee. According to 

 Small it extends into northern Florida, but I have seen no specimens from south 

 of North Carolina. It inhabits chiefly dry open woods and is also found along 

 mountain streams. 



Rhododendron nudiflorum in its typical form is chiefly characterized by the 

 glabrous bright green, usually elliptic or obovate leaves pubescent only on the 

 midrib above, strigose along the midrib below and ciliate, by the glabrous winter- 

 buds, by the pink, scentless flowers with a cylindric tube slightly longer than the 

 lobes rather gradually dilated above the middle into the spreading limb and cov- 

 ered outside with a fine pubescence and pilose glandless hairs. The species shows, 

 however, considerable variation and in some forms it approaches R. roseum. 

 The most striking variation is that with the hairs of the corolla gland-tipped 

 instead of glandless; this is separated below as a distinct variety. There are 

 slighter variations in the shape of the leaves, in the pubescence of the winter- 

 buds which are sometimes, particularly in the form with glandular corolla, 

 finely pubescent, in the color of the flowers which varies from almost white to 

 deep carmine. The sepals are occasionally well developed as in specimens of var. 

 glandifera from Somerset, Massachusetts, collected by J. G. Jack, May 21, 1903, 

 where they are up to 5 mm. long. In one specimen, Harbison's No. 35 (1919) 

 from Wilmington, North Carolina, the filaments are pubescent beyond the 

 middle and the ovary is only sparingly setose. 



Rhododendron nudiflorum was first discovered probably by Banister and men- 

 tioned by Plukenet as "Cistus virginiana Periclymeni flore ampliori et minus 

 odarato." It was introduced into England together with R. viscosum in the first 

 half of the 18th century, probably between 1725 and 1730 by Peter Collinson, 

 who had received it from John Bartram, for in a letter to Dr. Golden dated Ridge 

 Way House, Feb. 25, 1764, speaking of the plants in his garden he says, "Regard 

 the variety of trees and shrubs in this plantation, as Mountain Magnolia, Sarsi- 

 fax, Rhododendrons, Kalmias and Azaleas, etc. etc.; all are the bounty of my 

 curious botanic friend, J. Bartram of Philadelphia." 2 According to Aiton it was 



1 Clute (FL Upp. Susquehanna, 69), however, calls the flowers very fragrant. 



2 Gray, Selections from the Scientific Correspondence of Cadwallader Golden 

 with Gronovius, Linnaeus, Collinson, p. 48 (1843); reprinted from Ann. Jour. Sci 

 Arts, LXIV. 



