The Azaleas 



the generally accepted term to designate the whole 

 range of hardy deciduous shrubs with scarlet-red, flame, 

 and cream-coloured flowers that have been thus evolved. 

 In fact, to-day the four natural species are very rarely 

 found, nurserymen invariably selling improved artificial 

 varieties of fancy nomenclature, whose exact pedigree 

 has been lost for instance, " Admiral de Ruyter," with 

 blood-red flowers. 



But towards the middle of the nineteenth century 

 the hardy deciduous Azaleas of Britain received a note- 

 worthy addition, for Robert Fortune, plant hunting in 

 China, brought into notice certain Chinese Azaleas, in 

 particular the yellow-flowered " Chinese Azalea," /?. 

 sinense, which he found wild on the Ning-po hills ; and 

 a specially beautiful species, "it seemed to paint the 

 hill sides, so large were the flowers, so vivid the 

 colours," was his comment. The Chinese had long 

 cultivated these shrubs in their gardens, and Fortune 

 described how at Fa-tee "the Azaleas were splendid 

 Every garden was one mass of bloom, and the different 

 cplours of red, white and purple blended together, had 

 a most beautiful and imposing effect " ; and he specially 

 mentioned the yellow R. sinense as among them. 



Hartley Coleridge gave the plant a poetic wel- 

 come 



" Welcome sweet stranger from the gorgeous East ; 

 Nature on thee put forth her beauteous might, 

 For aye array'd as for a marriage feast, 



95 



