THE HEATH FAMIIA'. 37^ 



and thickets and opens its bloom at the same time, or a little before its 

 leaves. Its pink and white flowers have not as intense a fragrance as those 

 of the swamp honeysuckle, and their tube is pubescent but very slightly 

 glandular. There grows we remember on the azaleas a fleshy ball called 

 the May, or swamp apple, the very thought of which brought such delightful 

 reminiscences of boyhood to Mr. Hamilton Gibson. 



PURPLE LAUREL. CATAWBA RHODODENDRON. 



MOUNTAIN ROSE BAY. {JUaU CXX.) 



Rhododendron Cataiubu'nsc. 



' Flcnvcrs : large; growing profusely with long, pubescent pedicels in tcrniin.il 

 clusters. Calyx: persistent, the five pointed lobes very small. Corolln : bell- 

 shaped, with five rounded, irregular lobes. Stamens : ten, exscrtcd. Pistil : one ; 

 style, exserted, crimson. Capsule : oblong, projecting the style and covered with 

 a rusty down. Leaves : evergreen ; petioled ; elliptical or oval, sometimes rounded 

 at the base ; entire; thick; dark green and glossy above, pale or glaucous under- 

 neath, the petioles covered with tomentuni at least when young. A shrub, 

 three to twenty feet high. 



Often in connection with the history of plants we come upon the name of 

 Mr. Eraser, a Scotchman, whose good fortune it was to have been one of 

 the earliest botanists to traverse the south in quest of suitable plants to em- 

 bellish European gardens. Although Michau.x's name is inseparably as- 

 sociated with the discovery of this beautiful species, it was by " Mr. John 

 Eraser and his late father," according to the Botanical Magazine, that it 

 was introduced into Europe in 1809. 



It grows on the highest summits of the mountains through its range, fol- 

 lowing the ridges ; and it would seem that only those that have seen it there 

 with perhaps Abies Eraseri can form a just conception of its immense 

 thickets and the beauty it imparts to the scene. It was said to have 

 been owing to the colour effect of these flowers that Roan Mountain re- 

 ceived its name. There is, however, little of a roan look about them when 

 .fresh. They are then a pinky purple. As the great bunches begin to fade, 

 however, it can be conceived that from a distance they might produce an 

 atmosphere of roan. But so great is the diversity of opinion concerning 

 colour that we find the greater number of natives through these parts call- 

 ing the plant " blue laurel.'' 



Of the beauty and interwoven, tangled growth of the rhododendrons 

 through many mountainous parts of the south it is difticult to transmit an 

 impression. On some of the high mountains of North Carolina ihcy form 

 veritable jungles. Not far from Highlands a place in western North 



