CULTIVATED AZALEAS 



CULTIVATED AZALEAS 



It is well known that the charming Azaleas which 

 glorify our lawns in the early spring are the product 

 of the gardener's art. Their range of color is nothing 

 less than marvellous. Through all the tints of buff and 

 sulphur and primrose, through all the range of salmon 

 and crimson and vermilion, fading from rose into white 

 and deepening from lemon to orange, they make their 

 bewildering way. Every morning is a fresh revela- 

 tion of what subtle and varied color these gorgeous 

 creatures can command ; and as the day ends the hawk 

 moth, which looks like a humming-bird, poised upon 

 wings whose motion is like the sleep of a top, hovers 

 in the twilight above the blossoms seeking the nectar 

 stored in the long tubes; and so makes sure there shall 

 be more Azaleas in days to come. 



The story of their origin is most interesting, and in 

 this life history our own plants bear a distinguished 

 part. The entire American group possesses the char- 

 acteristic known as variability. That means simply 

 that a plant is in a state of " unstable equilibrium," and 

 will respond to influences so subtle that our gross 

 senses cannot divine what they are. The result is that 

 in minor characters the plant is continually vibrating 

 back and forth. It loves the swamp, but grows on 

 the dry rocky hillside as if it desired no other home. 

 Usually each flower has five stamens; some fine day a 

 plant produces a cluster in which each flower has ten. 

 Here the beautiful corolla-tube is smooth ; there it is 

 covered with clammy hairs. These characters, more- 

 over, do not persist with any degree of certainty. 



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