THE RHODODENDRON 103 



mountain-side with a deep evergreen growth, in- 

 vading the Hchen-scored rocks and even the pine- 

 forests, and robing themselves, from mid-June to 

 mid-July, in such rosy-red attire as fascinates 

 even the accustomed peasant, causing him almost 

 as much delight as they cause the stranger. 

 Indeed, their flowering is a masterpiece of Nature's 

 art, and few things are more fitting the sun's 

 ascendency and the advent of cowbells upon the 

 pastures. Wherever on the fields there is a rock, 

 there shines the rosy shrub against the grey mass, 

 and the steep slopes glint and glow as they will 

 do in the autumn when the Bilberry and other 

 groundlings catch afire. I have met visitors in 

 disappointment at the smallness of the blossoms, 

 and inquiring where the large-flowered forms of 

 our gardens might be found. Certainly, these 

 plants are not those of the Himalaya, but I 

 warrant they can boast a glory all their own — 

 one inspired by its particular circumstance and 

 surroundings, and vying in that respect with the 

 glory of the kinsfolk of India or of the Azalea 

 in Afghanistan. Abundance rather than size is 

 the keynote of this present splendour ; and the 

 abundance is amazing, giving us a mass of colour 

 which larger individual flowers could scarcely rival. 



