0098 



USES. Azaleas are grown quite widely in gardens as an ornamental plant. The 

 flowers that vary from pink to purple, yellow, etc. create the best effect; several of them 

 are fragrant. Quite often the leaves don't develop until after the flowers bloom. The leaves 

 of the yellow azalea are non-deciduous. Tournefort, in his Voyage to the Levant describes 

 this species with yellow flowers under the name chamcerhododendros. [Translator's 

 note: Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, 1656-1708, was a prominent French botanist and a 

 professor at the King's Garden (Jardin des Plantes) and at the College de France in Paris. 

 He traveled widely in the Levant collecting botanical specimens. A street in Paris is 

 named for him]. He claims that the flowers stimulate vapors and cause dizzy spells. The 

 honey that bees get from them, he says, stupefies those that eat it and brings on nausea. 

 On this point he recalls the misfortune that befell Xenophon's Army of Ten Thousand on 

 their way to Trebisonde. [Translator r s note: this is now the Turkish town of Trabzon 

 (Trapezus in antiquity) on the southeast shore of the Black Sea. The episode is described 

 in Xcnophon^s Anabasis, bk. IV, ch. 8.} His soldiers, after eating a lot of honey, in the 

 course of a single day suffered severe evacuations, both from above and below, followed 

 by dizziness and delirium. As a result, the ground was strewn with bodies as though a 

 battle had taken place; but nobody actually died. 



CULTIVATION. Azaleas are propagated by layering and from shoots that often 

 grow profusely, especially when they are in a soft, rich, and loose soil. One must wait for 

 the shoots to be well rooted to lift them. They'll be lost if withdrawn too soon. Generally 

 these bushes are very hardy and are never harmed by the cold. If one wishes to grow 

 them from seeds, the seeds must be sown on a layer of heather compost in early spring. 

 M. Desfontaines, in his excellent work on the trees and shrubs of France, says to set it up 

 in a frame covered with straw matting to block the sun's rays. When they're gone, the 

 seed bed is aerated and watered from time to time with a watering can. This will keep the 

 water from evaporating like dew. 



KEY TO PLATES. 



Swamp azalea. 1. Stamens and pistil. 2. Stamen, enlarged. 



Pink azalea. 1. Stamens and pistil. 



Yellow azalea. 1. Open corolla. 2. Stamens and pistil. 



