SHRUBS AND SHRUBBERIES 143 



environment just as their forerunners have done 

 in time past. Of ornamental shrubs now taking 

 the lead in English gardens, rhododendrons, per- 

 haps, may be set down as the most popular, while 

 they are also of comparatively late arrival. The 

 only species known in Parkinson's time apparently 

 was the little R. hirsutum, the prettier of the two 

 mountain species which are now familiarly and 

 indiscriminately known as the Alpine rose. The 

 common purple-flowered R. ponticum was intro- 

 duced from Gibraltar about the middle of the eigh- 

 teenth century, and the early R. dauticum and 

 the yellow-flowered Siberian species, R. chrysan- 

 thum, towards its close; but the majority of the 

 finer sorts have reached our shores within the last 

 seventy-five years, and these have been multiplied 

 to an enormous extent by hybridisation. It is a 

 question, noble as they are as evergreen flowering 

 shrubs, whether rhododendrons have not been too 

 exclusively planted, taking into account the beauty 

 and vast variety of other shrubs which are at com- 

 mand for every position and purpose. Azaleas, 

 now botanically included in the genus rhododen- 

 dron, have a totally distinct character, and are not 

 planted, perhaps because most of them are decidu- 

 ous, as much as the delicate shades of colour of 

 their flowers and the scarlet of their fading leaves 

 in the fall of the year entitle them to be. It is 

 true that much may be urged in favour of flower- 

 ing shrubs which are evergreen, since they not 

 only add their share to the colour of spring and 

 summer, but help as well to disguise the nakedness 

 and to shield the garden from the blasts of winter. 



