FLORA DOMESTIC A. 



AZALEA. 



RHODORACE^E. TENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Azalea is derived from the Greek, and signifies dry. 



MILLAR says the Azalea is so named because it grows 

 in a dry soil ; but this must be a strange oversight for in 

 the next page he tells us that it grows naturally in a moist 

 soil, in North America, and that unless it has a moist soil 

 it will not thrive. 



The Azalea is a beautiful flowering shrub. The naked- 

 flowered Azalea, in its native country, grows fourteen or 

 fifteen feet high : here it is never more than half that 

 height. * Of this species, the flowers appear before the 

 leaves: they are red, or white and red, and in great 

 abundance. This shrub is common in the woods of New 

 Jersey, and is called May-flower, Wild Honeysuckle, and 

 Upright Honeysuckle. We call it American Honeysuckle. 



The White-flowered Azalea is a lower shrub than the 

 former : the flowers are sweet-scented. This also is an 

 American. The Pontic Azalea has yellow flowers. The 

 Indian Azalea has a profusion of flowers, of a beautiful 

 bright red. 



" The Azalea Indica" says Thunberg, speaking of 

 Japan, " stood in almost every yard and plat near the 

 houses, in its best attire, ineffably resplendent with flowers 

 of different colours *." 



The Azaleas should be sheltered from severe frost, and 

 the earth be kept moist. They flower from May to July, 

 and are too handsome to be dispensed with, but from ab- 

 solute want of room. 



* Thunberg's Travels, vol. iii. p. 213. 



