104 THE AZALEAS OF THE OLD WOULD 



Caucasus, near summit of Dariel Pass, south side 2000 m. alt., 

 July 24, 1903, C. S. Sargent; Vladikavkaz, April 22, 1902, A. Famine; 

 Mt. Beschtau, June, July, R. F. Hohenacker; prov. Ossetia, Alagir, 

 swamps, May 10, Sept. 12, 1901, R. Marcowicz. Pontus region, "Ci- 

 ganadagh," July 20, 1889, P Sintenis (No. 1357); Sumi'ia, in woods, 

 July 31, 1889, P. Sintenis (No. 2017). 



Cultivated: Arnold Arboretum (No. 3159-1) from seeds collected 

 on the Caucasus by C. Schneider, June, August 28, 1917, A. 

 Rehder; Hort. Holm Lea, May and September, 1880; Bot. Gard. 

 Cambridge, Mass., May 31, 1916, A. Rehder; Hort. Kew, May 19, 

 August 9, 1880, G. Nicholson (No. 835); Breslau, Schneitniger Park, 

 June 13, July 23, 1902, C. Baenitz; Hort. Bot. Gottingen, May 22, 

 1893, A. Rehder (No. 1574). 



This well-known species is geographically isolated from its relatives and has a 

 rather remarkable distribution. It is native of the Caucasus Mountains, the Pontus 

 region of the Black Sea, of Cilicia, and also of eastern Europe (Lithuania, south- 

 eastern Poland, Volhynia and in southwestern Russia). It is a broad, densely 

 branched shrub from 2.5 to 4 m. high and as much as 6 m. in diameter. The 

 branches are twiggy and clothed when young with glandular, villose hairs. The 

 leaves are scattered, oblong-lanceolate often broadest above the middle, from 4 to 

 12 cm. long and from 1.5 to 3.5 cm. long, acute or obtuse, mucronate, narrowed to 

 the base, the margin is serrulate and ciliate, and on both surfaces are scattered, 

 appressed, short glandular bristles and short curled pale gray pubescence which 

 later disappears. The petioles, calyx and outside of the corolla tube are glandular. 

 The richly fragrant flowers are borne from 10 to 12 together in clusters at the end 

 of the naked shoots. The calyx is green, deeply divided into 5 oblong or ovate, 

 glandular-ciliate lobes from 2 to 5 mm. long. The corolla is yellow, from 4.5 cm. 

 in diameter with a narrow, cylindric tube from 1.5 to 2 cm. long. The stamens are 

 long exserted but overtopped by the pistil which has a glandular ovary, slender 

 style and capitate stigma. The fruit is cylindric, from 2 to 2.5 cm. long and from 

 0.5 to 0.8 cm. wide, furrowed and glabrescent. 



This Azalea was discovered by Tournefort on the eastern side of the Black Sea 

 during his voyage to the Levant (1700-02) and is described in his CoroUarium In- 

 ttitutionum rei herbariae, p. 42 (1703), as " Chamaerhododendros Pontica, maxima, 

 Mespili folio, flore luteo "; he also figures it in Memoires de I'Academie royale del 

 sciences, 348 (1704). A long account of it is given in his Voyage du Levant, II. 99 

 (1718). Buxbaum in his Plantarum minus cognitarum centuria V. 36, fig. 69 (1740) 

 gives a crude figure of it under Tournefort's name. It was on this description and 

 figure that Linnaeus based his Azalea pontica. The plant was introduced into 

 England from the Caucasus by Pallas, who sent seeds to Messers Lee & Kennedy 

 of Hammersmith in 1792, with whom they germinated the following year. In 1796, 

 Mr. Anthony Hove of Warsaw found this Azalea on the north side of the Black 

 Sea near Oczakow in marshy places, on the banks of the rivers Dnieper and Dniester, 

 and on the Asia Minor side of the Black Sea round Trebizond. Mr. Hove sent 

 seeds to Watson, a nurseryman of Islington, and plants flowered in a greenhouse in 

 1798. According to Schmidt it was found in Volhynia by Dr. Besser, and was in- 

 troduced to the Botanic Garden at Vienna before 1800. I have not been able to 

 ascertain exactly when it was introduced into this country, but according to Hovey 



