144 THE AZALEAS OF NORTH AMERICA 



oblong-obovate to oblanceolate or oblong, rarely elliptic or obovate, acute, rarely 

 obtusish, gland-tipped, cuneate at base, 4 to 9 cm. long and 1.5 to 3.5 cm. broad, 

 setosely ciliate, sparingly pubescent above or glabrescent except at the finely vil- 

 lose midrib, densely pubescent or grayish tomentulose beneath particularly on the 

 veins and midrib, usually sparingly strigose on the midrib toward the base, of firm 

 texture and slightly reticulate beneath at maturity; petioles 2 to 7 mm. long, finely 

 pubescent and sparingly strigose. Flowers expanding before or with the leaves in 

 April and May, in 6- to 15-flowered clusters, slightly fragrant; pedicels 0.5 to 1 cm. 

 long, villose-pubescent and hirsute, sometimes stipitate-glandular; calyx-lobes, 

 unequal, semi-orbicular to ovate, scarcely exceeding 1 mm., ciliate or sometimes 

 glandular-ciliate; corolla-tube cylindric, abruptly dilated at apex, 1.5 to 2.3 cm. 

 long, distinctly longer, sometimes nearly twice as long as lobes, densely and finely 

 villose outside and stipitate-glandular, rarely somewhat pilose, pubescent inside; 

 lobes ovate, acute or obtusish, 1.2 to 1.5 cm. long; stamens much exserted, nearly 

 3 times as long as tube, pubescent below the middle, anthers 1.5 to 2 mm. long, 

 ochraceous; style 4 to 6 cm. long, finely villose toward the base, slightly longer or 

 about as long as stamens; ovary densely white pubescent with appressed silky hairs 

 and sparingly setulose, without glands. Capsule cylindric-oblong, narrowed up- 

 ward, slender, 1.5 to 2 cm. long, pubescent and sparingly setose. 



This species is chiefly a plant of the southern Atlantic and the Gulf coastal 

 plain, but extends into the Piedmont region of North Carolina, Georgia and 

 Tennessee; it ranges from southwestern Tennessee and southern central North 

 Carolina to eastern South Carolina and northeastern Florida to extreme south- 

 eastern Texas, central Louisiana and northeastern Alabama. It usually grows in 

 woods on moist sandy soil, often along streams, rarely in swampy soil. 



Rhododendron canescens is chiefly characterized by the more or less pubescent 

 leaves firm at maturity and slightly reticulate beneath, by the slender corolla-tube 

 abruptly enlarged into a comparatively small limb and clothed outside with a 

 fine dense villose tomentum interspersed with rather short and small stipitate 

 glands, by the long exserted stamens being nearly three times as long as the tube 

 and by the grayish pubescent eglandular and not strongly setose ovary and cap- 

 sule. The color of the flowers is usually pink or perhaps more often the tube only 

 is pink and the limb white or only slightly pinkish; a form with nearly purple 

 flowers differing further from the type in the comparatively short and wide corolla- 

 tube has been collected by T. G. Harbison at Valleyhead, Alabama (No. 530; 

 May 2, 1911). There is considerable variation in the pubescence of the leaves; in 

 one extreme they are nearly white tomentose beneath, while in the other ex- 

 treme they are nearly glabrous. The glabrous or glabrescent form has been con- 

 fused with R. nudiflorum, but it is easily distinguished from that species by the 

 shape and pubescence of the corolla and by the pubescent winter-buds. 



Rhododendron canescens was discovered by Catesby, who published a character- 

 istic and fairly good figure of it in 1731. In 1797 an excellent colored plate of it, 

 drawn by J. Abbot, was published as A . nudiflora in his work on tjhe Lepidopterous 

 insects of Georgia. It was also collected by Michaux in South Carolina between 

 1784 and 1796, and first recognized by him as a distinct species and described in 

 his Flora as R. canescens. Pursh in 1814 confused Michaux's A. canescens with 

 R. roseum; he identified a plant collected near Winchester, West Virginia, which 

 apparently was R. roseum, with Michaux's A. canescens and redescribed the true 

 A . canescens under the name A . tricolor. 



It was probably introduced into cultivation about the middle of the 18th cen- 

 tury and it may be one of the varieties enumerated by Aiton in 1789 and possibly 

 his var. bicolor, cited by Pursh as a synonym of his A. bicolor which is identical with 

 R. canescens, but it apparently soon disappeared again from the gardens. 



