128 THE AZALEAS OF NORTH AMERICA 



Azalea aurantiaca Dietrich, Darst. Vorz. Zierpfl. 4, t. 1 (1803) - 1 



Azalea pontica /3. A. calendulacea Persoon, Syn. I. 212 (1805). 



? Azalea nudiflora var. h. lutea Elliott, Sketch Bot. I. 241 (1821). 



? Azalea fiava Michaux, Jour. ed. C. S. Sargent, 111 (in Proc. Am. Philos. 



Soc. XXVI.) (1889), name only. 

 Rhododendron luteum Schneider, III. Handb. Laubholzk. II. 500, fig. 329 q-r, 



320 a (1911), not Sweet. 2 



A shrub with erect and spreading branches, usually 1.5 to 3, rarely to 5 m. 

 tall; young branchlets pubescent and strigillose; floral winter-buds with broadly 

 ovate scales, rounded or even emarginate at the apiculate apex, brown, glabrous 

 except the densely white-ciliolate margin. Leaves broadly elliptic to elliptic- 

 oblong or obovate-oblong, rarely obovate, 4 to 8 cm. long, and 1.5 to 3.5 cm. broad, 

 acute and gland-tipped, broadly cuneate at base, finely pubescent above and more 

 densely so beneath when young, particularly on and along the midrib; petioles 

 2 to 5 mm. long, pubescent. Flowers in May and June, in usually 5- to 7-flowered 

 umbels, expanding with or shortly after the leaves; pedicels setulose and usually 

 glandular; calyx-lobes usually oblong and 3 to 4 mm. long or ovate and 1 to 2 mm. 

 long, obtuse, setulose outside, ciliate with long gland-tipped hairs; corolla funnel- 

 form, yellow or orange to scarlet, with orange blotch on the upper lip, the cylindric 

 tube gradually dilated above the middle, 1.5 to 2 cm. long, glandular-pilose, and 

 pubescent outside, the lobes ovate, about 2 cm. long and 1.5 cm. broad, usually 

 wavy at the margin, abruptly contracted into a short point, slightly pubescent 

 outside; stamens nearly three times as long as corolla-tube; the filaments pubescent 

 below the middle or on the lower third, the anthers about 3 mm. long; style pilose 

 toward the base, sometimes glabrous, 6 to 7 cm. long, about as long or longer than 

 stamens; ovary covered with long setose, partly gland-tipped hairs. Capsule 

 ovoid-oblong, 1.5 to 2 cm. long, setose and pubescent. 



This species is confined to the Appalachian Mountain region from Pennsyl- 

 vania to northern Georgia; according to the herbarium material seen, its western 

 limit runs from western Pennsylvania (Venango County) through southeastern 

 Ohio (Fairfield County), 3 eastern Kentucky (Rockcastle County), eastern Tennes- 

 see (Knox County) to northern Georgia (Gwinnett County) ; its eastern limit 



1 Dtppel and Schneider cite 1801 as date of publication, which would give Die- 

 trich's name priority over A . calendulacea, but the part which contains A . aurantiaca 

 is dated 1803 as well on the title-page as on the cover. The cover bears the title 

 " Modeblumen fur Botaniker . . . Sechstes Heft." The first part of the latter pub- 

 lication is the one which is dated 1801. There is no technical description given, 

 and this together with the fact that the part was published during the second half 

 of the year, as it contains a letter dated July 1, 1803, makes it advisable to give 

 Michaux's name the preference. 



1 Pbelinnean Name: Azalea erectafoliis ovatis integris alternis flore luteo piloso 

 praecoci Colden in Act. Soc. Sci. Upsala, IV. 93 (1749). 



Additional Illt/sthations. Black Figures: Loudon, Arb. Brit. II. 1142, 

 fig. 946 (1838); reproduced in Gard. XXIX. 550 (1886). — Britton & Brown, III. 

 Fl. II. fig. 2745 (1897); ed. 2, II. fig. 3217 (1913). — Keeler, Our North. Shrubs, 

 351 (1903).— Gard. Mag. V. 218 (1907). — Country Life Am. XL 496 (1907).— 

 Stevens, III. Guide Flow. PL t. 114, fig. 3 (1910). — Schneider, III. Handb. Laub- 

 holzk. I. fig. 329 q-r, 330 a (1911). 



* This station, interesting on account of its isolation, was first discovered in 

 1841 according to Bigelow & Hor, Fl. Lancast. 56 (1841) : " For the discovery of 

 this splendid plant ... we are indebted to the hospitality of Mr. Jacob Greene, 

 who had found it a few days previously at the mouth of Clear Creek." 



