2 8 o Ericacecz Rhododendron. 



4. Rh. Caucdsicum. A small shrub about a yard high. 

 Leaves obovate or lanceolate. Flowers campanulate, white 

 within, rosy-pink outside, and spotted with green in the throat. 

 This grows at a great elevation in the Caucasus Mountains, 

 is perfectly hardy, and has produced several varieties supe- 

 rior in beauty to the typical form. The following are some 

 of the best varieties, or perhaps, in some instances, hybrids, of 

 this species : Prince Camille de Rohan, with large white undu- 

 lated corollas finely spotted with brown ; stramineum, clear 

 pale yellow ; pulchemmum, rose ; and album, white. 



5. Rh. Ponticum. This is the common species of gardens, 

 having, in the ordinary variety, pale purplish-violet spotted 

 flowers. It is the hardiest of all the large- flowered ones, and less 

 exacting in regard to soil and situation, and the one generally 

 employed as a stock for grafting the tenderer kinds upon. In 

 favourable situations it will attain a large size for a bush, occa- 

 sionally a height of 20 feet with a corresponding spread of 



Pig. 158. Bhododendrou arboretim. (J nat. size.) 



branches. There are white, scarlet, pink, and purplish violet 

 varieties, variously spotted with yellow, green or brown, and 

 also doiible-flowered ones. The most remarkable in the latter 

 category is the variety called Vervceanum. This species is a 

 native of Asia Minor and the Iberian peninsula, without any 

 known intermediate stations. 



