170 THE AZALEAS OF NORTH AMERICA 



This plant is known only in southwestern Georgia and eastern Alabama and 

 grows in shady ravines on the banks of streams. The type locality is about two 

 miles northwest of Cuthbert, where it was collected by R. M. Harper in 1903 and 

 first described by Small in 1913. It is the most distinct of the American species of 

 the section Pentanthera and shows no very close relation to any species of this 

 section. It is the most glabrous of all American species and entirely destitute of 

 any glandular pubescence except occasionally some glands on the outside of the 

 corolla-lobes; in its glabrousness it comes nearest to the preceding species, but that 

 has generally obovate smaller leaves distinctly glaucous beneath and a glandular 

 and pubescent corolla; in the leaves, the winter-buds and in the branchlets it re- 

 sembles R. Vaseyi so much that it is not easy to distinguish sterile specimens, 

 but the flowers are entirely different. The shape of the corolla of R. prunifolium 

 is much like that of R. calendulaceum and R. occidentals, but these species differ 

 widely from R. prunifolium in most other characters. 



Rhododendron prunifolium was introduced into cultivation through the Arnold 

 Arboretum, where plants were raised in 1918 from seeds collected by T. G. Harbison 

 near Cuthbert, Georgia, in November, 1917. 



