ENUMERATION OF THE SPECIES 47 



strigose, gray to shining brown hairs. At low altitudes the leaves are compara- 

 tively large, from lanceolate to ovate-elliptic, and are all persistent; at its upper 

 altitudinal limit the leaves are much reduced in size, and nearly all fall off in the 

 late autumn. The leaves immediately below the winterbuds are small, relatively 

 thick, obovate to oblanceolate and more persistent than the other form of leaves. 

 The flowers are clustered, from two to six together, at the end of the shoots and 

 all I have seen are fairly uniform in color. The corolla is broad-funnel shape, 

 varying in color from rose-red through bright to dark red. The calyx varies from 

 an inconspicuous rim to a length of 5 mm.; the stamens are normally ten, rarely 

 eight, never fewer, as long or nearly as long as the corolla but shorter than the 

 style. In central China it is generally known as the " Yin-shan-hung." Millais 

 says that Forrest states under Nos. 4173, 4173 a , from plants cultivated by Chinese 

 in the Tali Valley, that the color of the flowers is " rose to white." In China I 

 have never seen wild an albino of this species; Forrest's No. 4173 in Herb. Kew is 

 described as having rose-colored flowers. The Formosan specimen cited from 

 A. Henry in Herb. Kew represents Hayata's var. formosanum, the type of which 

 I have seen in Tokyo. It is indistinguishable from typical R. Simsii so abundant 

 in China, but in Formosa known only from the extreme southern end of the island. 



For nearly a century and a quarter this plant has usurped the name indicum, 

 and in books is almost hopelessly confused with the true R. indicum Sweet, with R. 

 obtusum Planchon and its varieties, and with R. scabrum G. Don (R.sublanceolatum 

 Miquel). The first mention of the Chinese plant I can find is in Macartney's 

 Embassy to China, II. 524 (1797), where Azalea indica is recorded as collected 

 in the provinces of Kiangsi and Canton (Kwangtung) in 1793. In all probability 

 it is the Chinese species that was introduced into Kew " by the Hon. Court of 

 Directors of the East India Company " in the ship " Cuffnels," Captain Wellbank 

 (Aiton, Hort. Kew, ed. 2. 318 [1810]), though Aiton's description is of the true 

 R. indicum Sweet. Sims was the first to figure the Chinese species (Bot. Mag. 

 1. 1480 [1812]) under the erroneous name of Azalea indica, and states that it was a 

 rare plant in England and that the only one that had flowered was in the collection 

 of James Vere, Esq. In the Kew Herbarium there are two specimens from the 

 Jardin du Luxembourg collected in 1822 and 1823. These are the oldest cultivated 

 specimens I have seen. Sweet in 1832 gave it a varietal name, and says that the 

 plant was imported in the East India Company's ship " Orwell " from China by 

 Mr. Tate. This Mr. Tate was a nurseryman in Sloane Square, London, and the 

 master of the ship " Orwell " was Captain Farrer, who brought a number of 

 Chinese plants including other Azaleas to England and handed them over to 

 Tate. In Braam's Icones plantarum, issued in 1818, there is a figure (t. 27) of a 

 red-flowered Azalea. The drawing is very crude and, while it probably is meant 

 for R. Simsii, it might represent any Azalea with red flowers. 



The Chinese Azalea appears to have remained rare in the Occident for several 

 decades. In 1837, under the name of Azalea indica ignescens, it was cultivated in 

 America by Marshall P. Wilder, Dorchester, Mass. Fortune, from 1843 to 1856, 

 introduced into England from Chinese gardens many Azaleas of different kinds, 

 and these gave great impetus to the cultivation of these ornamental plants. The 

 so-called " Indian Azaleas " of western gardens have been originated almost en- 

 tirely from R. Simsii since about 1850, chiefly in Belgium, but some in France 

 and others in Germany. 



There is a very considerable literature on "Indian Azaleas" and at least one 

 illustrated book (Iconographie Azalees de L'Inde byAugustevan Geert, published 

 in 1882). Planchon (in Fl. des Serr. IX. 77 [1854]) gives a brief history of them, 

 and enumerates varieties in the collections of M. Margottin, M. Delessert, and 

 M. Michel. Some of them were forms of the true R. indicum, others of R. phoe- 



