MARCH 53 



their midribs that they look like a lot of dark green 

 pencils. That was its aspect at 9 A.M., having little 

 resemblance to an evergreen ; but by mid-day the sun 

 had beguiled it ; the leaves were as broad and green as 

 at midsummer, and the whole trying process had to be 

 gone over daily. Other plants of the same species, 

 protected by trees from the sun, maintain their attitude 

 of defence. Moral let all early flowering rhododen- 

 drons and those that start early in growth (which 

 R. barbatum prudently does not) be planted where the 

 sun of February may not strike them. 



Of the vast multitude of Asiatic species of rhodo- 

 dendron which the energy and enterprise of collectors 

 have disposed for the amateur's choice, we grow more 

 than one hundred species here. It is interesting to note 

 the different attitudes they assume to protect them- 

 selves from cold. Taking two of the large-leaved kinds, 

 R. Hodgsoni presents a singular appearance, rolling back 

 its great leaves into narrow cylinders eight to twelve 

 inches long; but R. Falconeri folds its leaves not 

 at all, but depresses them vertically. R. Smirnovi, 

 Caucasicum, Ponticum, pachytriclium, crassum and 

 Edgworthi also hang their leaves uncurled. R. Thom- 

 soni and arboreum depress them, but while the former 

 curls them moderately backward, the latter advances 

 the outer margins. R, Fargesi and ncriijlorum 1 twist 



1 This beautiful species suffers under an obvious misnomer. Nerii- 

 Jlorum means 'with flowers like an oleander,' than which no epithet 

 can be less appropriate for the intense scarlet tubes of this rhodo- 

 dendron ; but its foliage does resemble that of the oleander pretty 

 closely, wherefore the specific name ought to be, and perhaps was 

 until wrongly written, neriifolium. 



