110 THE AZALEAS OF NORTH AMERICA 



first American species recorded is Rhododendronviscosum, of which 

 we find a figure published in 1691 by Plukenet (Phytogr. 1. 1. 161, 

 fig. 4) under the name Cistus virginiana flore et odore Peri- 

 clymeni after a drawing made from nature by John Banister, an 

 English missionary in Virginia who took great interest in botany 

 and sent in 1680 a catalogue of Virginian plants to Ray. A few 

 years later Plukenet (M ant . 49) mentioned the plant now known 

 as R. nudiflorum under the name Cistus virginiana Periclymeni 

 flore ampiiore minus odorato. Both species were introduced into 

 England by Peter Collinson before 1730 and of R. nudiflorum a 

 good colored plate was published by Trew in 1750 (PI. Select. 

 Ehret. t. 48), while the first colored plate of R. viscosum was pub- 

 lished by Meerburgh in 1798 (PL Select. Icon. t. 9). Linnaeus 

 when publishing his Species plantarum in 1753 knew only these 

 two species which he referred to the genus Azalea and named 

 A. viscosa and A. lutea, changing the latter name to A. nudiflora 

 in the second edition of his work. In the same edition, in 1762, 

 he described Rhodora canadensis introduced some time before 

 the year 1756 from Canada to Paris and figured first by Duhamel 

 in 1760 (Sem. PI. AM. 10, t. 27, fig. 2). In 1763 Adanson (Fam. 

 PI. 164) proposed the name Tsutsusi based on Kaempfer's t. 846 

 which is R. obtusum var. Kaempferi, and cites "Azalea L." as 

 a synonym; though not an American plant, this is mentioned 

 here, because Small in the North American Flora considers 

 A. indica L., under which Linnaeus cites Kaempfer's tab. 846, the 

 type of the genus Azalea. In 1766 Crantz (Inst. II. 468) pro- 

 posed the new name Hochenwartia for Rhodora, because it was 

 not the Rhodora of Pliny. Gmelin (Syst. Nat. II. pt. 1, 694) in 

 1791 united Rhodora with Rhododendron, and Salisbury in 

 1796 (Prodr. 286) first recognized the close relationship of most 

 Azaleas to the genus Rhododendron; he referred the American 

 Azaleas and Rhodora to the genus Rhododendron, retaining the 

 name Azalea for A. procumbens, one of the two species upon 

 which Linnaeus founded the genus. In 1803 Michaux (Fl. 

 Bor.-Am. 1. 150) described two new species, A. calendulacea and 

 A. canescens; the former had been mentioned as long before as 

 1749 by Colden but without sufficient description. It was men- 

 tioned again in 1791 by W. Bartram, who discovered it in 1776 

 and describes its beauty in glowing terms. The second species 

 is possibly identical with one of Aiton's varieties of A. nudiflora 



