The Evergreen Rhododendrons 



purple blooms stand for the typical Rhododendron to 

 most people, and it is our commonest evergreen, barring 

 the Cherry Laurel. The only other Rhododendron 

 which appears in florists' lists of the seventies and 

 eighties of the eighteenth century is the little Alpine 

 Rose, R. ferrugineum, whose leaves are a rusty red 

 beneath. 



With the nineteenth century the number of species 

 to enter our country began rapidly to increase. Some 

 came from America, some from China and Japan, 

 others from India. Dr. von Siebold, the celebrated 

 botanist of the Japan flora, relates that in 1826 he 

 received a most precious present from the Prince of 

 Satsuma, to wit, a certain Rhododendron (R. Metter- 

 nichii) held sacred, and set in a rare and beautiful 

 porcelain vase. This very plant had been brought by 

 the Prince himself from the tombs of the Japanese 

 Emperors at Nikko twenty years earlier, when he was 

 making a pilgrimage there. Unfortunately, the plant 

 died in the tropics as the botanist was endeavouring 

 to bring it home, and only the vase remained to 

 console him. It was not until nearly half a century 

 later that, under better conditions of transit, it was 

 found possible to bring this Rhododendron to England 

 and show its purplish-pink flowers. 



Sir Joseph Hooker's famous expedition to the 

 Sikkim Himalayas in 1847 gave a great fillip to our 



