HISTORY 9 



them to Tate, a nurseryman, of Sloane Square, London. In the Botan- 

 ical Register, t. 56 (1842), is figured a double red-flowered Azalea said 

 to be of Chinese origin and in the possession of William Wells, Esq., 

 of Redleaf . These various Azaleas by hybridization and selection soon 

 became the parents of a number of good plants which are figured in 

 the periodicals of the time. Especially valuable was the Azalea indica 

 variegata which in the hands of Knight, and of Ivery, another English 

 nurseryman, yielded several very ornamental varieties. 



In 1843 Robert Fortune was sent to China by the Horticultural 

 Society of London, and his travels and explorations there, which ended 

 in 1861, inaugurated a new era in the history of plant introduction 

 from that country. He sent from Chinese gardens at Shanghai and 

 elsewhere to England many Azaleas, including such new ones as Aza- 

 lea obtusa (R. obtusum Planch.), Azalea ramentacea (R. obtusum 

 f. album Rehder), Azalea crispiflora (R. indicum var. crispiflorum 

 Schneid.), Azalea amoena {R. obtusum f. amoenum Wils.), Azalea 

 narcissiflora (R. mucronatum f. narcissiflorum Wils.), Azalea vit- 

 tata (R. Simsii var. vittata Wils.) and Azalea Bealii (R. Simsii 

 var. vittata f. Bealii Wils.). There is no need to emphasize the value 

 of these new Azaleas. His vittata with lilac flowers and Bealii with 

 red-striped flowers gave an impetus to the raising of new forms and 

 may be said to have initiated an industry which has resulted in the so- 

 called race of "Indian Azaleas." The true R. indicum, whose progeny 

 are not amenable to forcing, dropped out and the forms of R. Simsii, 

 R. mucronatum and R. obtusum — seminal, branch sports and hybrids — 

 took its place, and to these we owe the familiar greenhouse Azaleas 

 of to-day. There is no necessity for pursuing the subject further except 

 to point out that all the Azaleas from the Orient up to 1860 were 

 cultivated plants introduced from gardens and that the wild parent 

 and habitat of none except R. Farrerae and R. molle were known. 



The opening of Japan, which followed the signing of treaties first 

 with America in 1854 and then with other powers, soon led to the 

 introduction of a great number of valuable garden plants to America 

 and Europe. Strange to say the Azaleas for which Japan is famous 

 seem to have been passed over for a number of years, probably on the 

 assumption that they were the same as those already introduced to 

 our gardens from China. From 1859-64 C. Maximowicz, the famous 

 Russian botanist, travelled in Japan, and to him we owe our first com- 

 prehensive account of the wild flora of that country. Maximowicz 

 and his Japanese collector, Tschonoski, were among the first to collect 



