ENUMERATION OF THE SPECIES 155 



of central Georgia. It is chiefly distinguished by the brown-red branchlets usually 

 conspicuously and densely covered toward the ends with strigose red-brown hairs, 

 by the aristate or at least distinctly mucronate more numerous scales of the winter- 

 buds, usually glabrous and with a conspicuous dark band along the margin, by the 

 long and slender corolla-tube about twice as long as the comparatively small 

 lobes, and by the stamens considerably exceeding the lobes; the leaves are of firmer 

 texture and more distinctly serrulate on the margin and are not unfrequently, 

 particularly those toward the end of vigorous shoots, more or less densely pubescent 

 on the under side; it is usually a tall shrub, while R. viscosum, particularly in the 

 southern part of its range, is usually a low, sometimes even stoloniferous shrub. 

 Small in his description and keys lays much stress on the oval shape of the leaves, 

 but though the type specimen which has only short and weak branchlets and no 

 vigorous shoots happens to have most of its leaves of elliptic shape, this is the more 

 unusual shape, while the prevailing shape of the leaves varies from obovate to 

 oblong-obovate or sometimes oblanceolate. Until Small described it as a new 

 species, 22. serrulatum had been always confused with R. viscosum and even he 

 understood under that name only the uncommon form with oval or elliptic leaves 

 and referred the forms with obovate leaves to R. viscosum, making it a very local 

 species, while really it has a rather wide distribution. Like the other related species 

 it varies in the pubescence of its leaves, which may be glabrous except strigose hairs 

 on the midrib beneath, as in the type, or more or less, sometimes densely pubescent 

 on their under side and strigillose and puberulous above; the pubescence may appear 

 either on all the leaves or chiefly on upper leaves of the more vigorous shoots, while 

 the leaves appearing earlier in the season are glabrous or nearly glabrous. The 

 form with the leaves always pubescent is described below as a distinct form. Some- 

 times the leaves of the glabrous form are glaucescent beneath, as in some specimens 

 from Folkston, Georgia. Also the winter-buds vary in their pubescence; typically 

 they are perfectly glabrous, but sometimes they are more or less densely pubescent 

 and these specimens I have referred to a distinct variety, described below. In 

 the shape of the corolla, in its pubescence and in its color, which is apparently 

 always white or nearly white, I find little variation except that the tube varies 

 somewhat in length. 



This species was apparently first collected by T. Drummond about 1830 near 

 New Orleans in Louisiana and near Appalachicola in Florida; it also was collected 

 in Florida by T. Rugel in the forties and by Chapman in the fifties or sixties, but 

 it was not distinguished until Dr. Small in 1903 described his Azalea serrulata, 

 based on a specimen collected by G. V. Nash near Eustis, Florida, which had most 

 of the leaves of distinctly oval or elliptic shape. The shape of the leaves, however, 

 cannot be considered a reliable character, as already stated. 



Rhododendron serrulatum was introduced into cultivation through the Arnold 

 Arboretum, where plants were raised in 1919 from seeds collected by T. G. Harbison 

 in December, 1918, near Folkston, Georgia. It will probably not be hardy north 

 and as an ornamental shrub it will not be superior to R. viscosum, but for southern 

 gardens it may be valuable on account of its late appearing fragrant flowers. 



Rhododendron serrulatum f. molliculum Rehder, forma nova. 



A typo recedit ramulis annotinis apicem versus densius villosulis v. glabrius culis 

 minus strigosis, f oliis subtus molliter subaccumbenti-villosis supra sparsius villosulis 

 et saepe praecipue in foliis superioribus strigillosis, pedicellis magis villosulis. 



Florida. Lake County: Eustis, June 23, 1919, T. G. Harbison 

 (No. 17, type, 19, 20, 21, partly); December 12, 1919 (No. 25); June 

 16-30, 1894, G. V. Nash (No. 1104; Nat. Herb. 223,237). 



