284. KHODODENDRON MAXIMUM GREAT LAUREL. 31 



GENUS RHODODENDRON, L. 



Leaves clustered at the ends of the branchlets, persistent and coriaceous with 

 revolute entire margins; midrils broad, petioles stout. Flowers in terminal 

 corymbs or umbels from terminal scaly cone-like buds; calyx 5-lobed or parted, 

 persistent; corolla campanulate with 5 nearly regular lobes; disk fleshy, lobed; 

 stamens usually 10 and somewhat unequal, declined and spreading; filaments 

 pilose at base and attached to the backs of the anthers; ovary 5-celled with 

 slender exserted persistent syle and many anatropous ovules in each cell attached 

 to the axile plamenta. Fruit a woody capsule, 5-20-valved, septicidally .dehiscent 

 from the summit and containing many seeds with coat laciniated at the ends. 



Small trees and shrubs with bitter astringent properties and showy flowers, of 

 some over one hundred and fifty species of eastern and southern Asia and 'the 

 adjacent islands and North America. They are largely grown for ornamental 

 purposes and many garden varieties have been produced by hybridization and 

 selection. Of the eight species found in the United States one is arborescent on the 

 Atlantic coast region and another rarely on the Pacific slope. The name is from 

 Greek words meaning Rose-tree. 



284. RHODODENDRON MAXIMUM, L. 

 ROSE BAY. GREAT LAUREL. 



Ger., Groszer Rosenlorbeer; Fr., Rhododendron grand; Sp., Rhodo- 

 dendron grande. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves oblong-lanceolate, oblanceolate or oblong, 4-12 

 in. long, acute at both ends, revolute in the bud, ferruginous tomentose at first 

 but at maturity lustrous dark green above, paler beneath, thick and stiff. Flowers 

 (June-July) in 16-24-flowered umbels 4-5 in. across, with slender pink viscid- 

 pubescent pedicels springing from the axils of the scales of the inflorescence buds; 

 calyx-lobes oblong, rounded; corolla campanulate, gibbous posteriorly, about 1 in. 

 long, varying from rose-color or purplish to white, cleft to the middle, lobes 

 rounded, the upper one yellow spotted inside. Fruit capsule oblong-ovoid, ^ in. 

 long, glandular-hispid, opening and liberating its seeds in autumn and persisting, 

 during the following winter. 



The Rose Bay, or Large Rhododendron, is very widely known as 

 one of our most beautiful flowering shrubs, and in the minds of the 

 majority of people is never thought of as a tree. ^N"ot so, however, 

 in the enchanted heart of the Alleghanies of Tennessee and the Caro- 

 linas, where encouragement for tree-growth is extraordinary. There 

 the Rose Bay is found as a tree 30 or 40 ft. (10 m.) in height and 

 has a trunk 10 or 12 in. (0.23 m.) in diameter. The bark of trunk 

 is of an ashen gray color, quite free from ridges and exfoliates in 

 thin irregular scales. 



HABITAT. From Xova Scotia and Maine southward throughout 

 the Appalachian system to Georgia. In the northern part of its 

 range it is rare and local, being there confined to swamps and is 

 shrubby in character. To the southward it is more general in dis- 



