92 THE AZALEAS OF THE OLD WOELD 



On the margin of forests and in thickets this species is widely distributed in 

 northern Japan from the mountains round Sapporo in central Hokkaido south- 

 ward to those of Shinano in central Hondo. I am familiar with it from the Nikko 

 region northward, but do not consider it a common plant. It is scattered here 

 and there and is partial to dense thickets on steep slopes of loose soil. It is a 

 shrub of loose and sparse habit, from 1 to 1.5 m. tall, with slender, smooth, purple- 

 brown branches which are brown and furnished when young with curled, partly 

 viscid, gray hairs. The leaves are deciduous, membranous, dark green and 

 change to yellow before they fall; they are scattered on the vigorous shoots, and 

 crowded, forming false whorls of fives, at the end of the branchlets; they are obo- 

 vate to oblanceolate, from 4 to 12 cm. long and from 1.5 to 6 cm. wide, acute or 

 subacute, with a glandular mucro; the base is narrowed to a short, winged petiole; 

 the margins are serrulate and ciliate, the upper surface is sparsely clad with ap- 

 pressed, flattened, hispid hairs and the under surface is more or less densely 

 clothed with short, pale gray tomentum. The flowers are about 5 cm. across, and 

 open in June and early July, according to climate, and immediately before or aa 

 the leaves unfold; they are borne in terminal umbels, each containing from 3 to 5 

 flowers. The pedicels are moderately stout, from 1 to 2 cm. long, and are 

 clothed with curled, glandular, yellowish hairs; the calyx is small, with 5 

 purple and ciliate lobes; the corolla is rich red-purple, rotate-campanulate, with 

 a short, wide tube and spreading, rounded lobes; the stamens are 10 in number 

 in two series of unequal length, the longest equalling the corolla and over- 

 topped by the curved style, which has a bifid stigma. The fruit is erect, conio- 

 ovoid, from 1 to 1.2 cm. long, purple-brown, and clothed with yellow, viscid, 

 pilose hairs. 



This species was discovered about 1860 by Dr. Michael Albrecht of the Russian 

 Consulate in Hakodate, and was found by Maximowicz also in the vicinity of 

 Hakodate in 1861. However, it does not appear to have been introduced into 

 western gardens until 1892, when Professor Sargent sent seeds to the Arnold 

 Arboretum from two localities in Hokkaido. Plants raised from these seeds grew 

 for several years in this Arboretum, but never really flourished. I sent seeds from 

 northern Hondo in 1914, and these were distributed by the Arboretum. Plants 

 raised from these seeds have grown fairly well, but it is too early to say whether 

 they will make themselves at home here. There is no apparent reason why this 

 Azalea should not thrive here. The habit is sparse and the flowers are not large, 

 but the color is intense and the plant is graceful and attractive. 



Rhododendron pentaphyllum Maximowicz in Bull. Acad. Sti. St. 

 Petersbourg, ser. 3, XXXI. 65 (Mel Biol. XII. 491) (1887).— Mat- 

 sumura, Ind. PI. Jap. II. pt. 2, 463 (1912). — Millais, Khodod. 225 

 (1917). — Komatsu in Tokyo Bot. Mag. XXXII. [8] (1918). 



Rhododendron pentaphyllum var. nikoense Komatsu in Icon. PI. Koisikav. 



IH. 45, t. 168 (1916). 

 Rhododendron quinquefolium var. roseum Rehder in Bailey, Stand. Cycl. Hart. 



V. 2947 (1916). 



Japan: Kyushu, prov. Osumi, Tarumizu village, April and May, 

 1911, S. Kawagoe. Hondo, prov. Kozuki, Mt. Akagi, June 13, 1911, 

 as to flowers, May 17, 1921, K. Sakurai; prov. Musashi, Yokohama, 

 cultivated, April 11, 1914, E. H. Wilson (No. 6396); prov. Shimot- 



