The Heaths: the Rhododendron and the Mountain Laurel 



JVood light brown, hard, heavy, fine. Buds scaly, prominent; 

 leaf buds small, axillary, on flowerless branches; flower buds 

 large, conical, terminal. Leaves narrow oblong, tapering to a 

 short petiole; apex abruptly pointed; margin entire, leathery, 

 stiff, dark green, shining above, dull whitish beneath, 4 to lo 

 inches long. Flowers, June, in large umbels, on viscid stems; 

 corollas irregular, bell shaped, 5-lobed, i^ inches across, rosy, 

 purplish or white, with hairy and spotted throat; stamens 8 to 12, 

 curved; pistil simple, with 5-celled ovary and elongated style with 

 5-lobed red stigma. Fruit a woody, 5-celled many-seeded capsule. 

 Preferred habitat, sandy, peaty or loamy soil, in somewhat shady 

 situations. Distribution, New Brunswick to Florida; west to 

 Lake Erie, through Gulf States to Louisiana and Arkansas. 

 Mainly along mountains. Rare north of Pennsylvania. Uses: 

 Valuable hardy ornamental evergreen. Forced for winter bloom 

 as potted plants. 



Rhododendron means "rose tree" — and we wisely cling to 

 the long, sonorous Greek name. The common English name, rose 

 bay, seems trivial applied to so beautiful a plant. The traveller 

 who visits the southern Appalachian Mountains in early summer 

 sees Rhododendron maximum in its best estate. Above each 

 umbrella-like whorl of glossy evergreen leaves appears a rounded 

 cluster of white or rosy blossoms, dimmed only by the bright 

 green of the new leafy shoots that stand out between the flower 

 clusters. For miles these tree-like growths illuminate the woods, 

 as their shrubby relatives, the azaleas, do in woods farther north, 

 where the rhododendrons dwindle in size and in numbers. 



Through late summer the green capsules, each with its curv- 

 ing style atop, mark the place where the blossoms were. They 

 hang on all winter, though the seeds fall in autumn. Against 

 the snow the broad leaves shine brighter than all other 

 evergreens, and a large scaly bud in the centre of the young 

 shoots conceals and promises flowers in profusion for the com- 

 ing summer. 



R. Catawbiense, a more brilliant species in bloom, but always 

 a shrub, is brought by the carload from the high Alleghanies, and 

 planted on great estates in the North, where it passes R. maximum. 

 in hardiness. The transplanting of these rhododendrons is accom- 

 plished with a loss of scarcely i per cent, if done by responsible 

 nurserymen. 



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