WILD FLOWERS PINK 
flower of Flanders. Honey made from these flowers 
is said to cause ill effects. 
AMERICAN, OR GREAT RHODODENDRON 
GREAT LAUREL. ROSE TREE, OR BAY 
Rhododéndron maximum. Heath Family. 
This plant has been considered to be the handsomest 
and most beautiful of our native ornamental shrubs. 
It is now highly esteemed and extensively used for 
decorating home grounds and parks. In the Alle- 
ghany regions it covers entire mountain sides so 
densely as to make any attempt to penetrate them 
well-nigh impossible. The flowers are arranged in 
large terminal clusters which nearly cover the plant 
during June and July, and present a sight that is 
magnificent beyond description. The wood is hard. 
and strong, light brown in colour, and a cubic foot 
weighs thirty-nine pounds. The Rhododendron has 
been adopted as the state flower of Washington and 
West Virginia. Honey made from the flowers is said to 
be poisonous. It is a tall, branching shrub, or some- 
times a tree upward of forty feet high and a foot in 
diameter, but usually from six to thirty feet high. The 
long-oblong or broad lance-shaped evergreen leaves 
are narrowed toward the base, and are very smooth, 
leathery, toothless, and shiny. They are dark green, 
blunt-pointed, short-stemmed and strongly ribbed. 
The flower, which often grows two inches broad, 
is bell-shaped, with five spreading, oval lobes. They 
are usually rose coloured, varying to white, with a 
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