BIBDS, FLOWERS, AND PEOPLE 137 



or mountain rose-bay (7?. Catawhiense). 

 That, also, was to be found here, but very 

 sparingly, as far as I could discover. I 

 felicitated myself on having seen it in its 

 glory on the mountains of southeastern Ten- 

 nessee. The common large rhododendron 

 (i?. maximum) stood in thickets along all 

 the brooks. I must have walked and driven 

 past a hundred miles of it, on the present 

 trip, it seemed to me ; but I have never been 

 at the South late enough to see it in flower. 

 What I shall remember longest about the 

 flora of Highlands — and there is no part of 

 eastern North America that is botanically 

 richer, I suppose — is the azaleas. When I 

 drove up from Walhalla, on the 6th of May, 

 the woods were bright, mile after mile, with 

 the common pink species (^A. nudijlord) ; 

 and at Highlands, in some of the dooryards, 

 I found in full bloom a much lovelier kind, 

 — also pink, and also leafless, — A. Vaseyi, 

 as it turned out : a rare and lately discov- 

 ered plant, of which the village people are 

 justly proud. I could not visit its wild 

 habitat without a guide, they told me. 

 W^ithin a week or so after my arrival the 

 real glory of the spring was upon us : the 



