HEATH FAMILY 



Azaleas flush the island floors 

 And the tints of heaven reply. 



— Ralph Waldo Emerson. 



Martha Bockee Flint in "A Garden of Simples" 

 writes of Azalea nndiflora as follows : 



" In secluded forest dells where the wood soil is 

 rich and damp, on the verge of black, peat} 7 swamps, 

 and even on rocky hillsides, there blooms the most 

 beautiful of the Azaleas, the Rhododendron nndiflora. 

 No ' tree ' in its sub-arborescent 

 growth, it is truly a rose flower, for 

 the exquisite tints of the wild-rose 

 and the peach-blossom color its 

 clusters of airy bloom. . . . This 

 peerless azalea is familiarly known 

 in New England as the honeysuckle, 

 the swamp pink and the May apple. 

 The latter name comes from the ir- 

 regular excrescence, pale green and 

 glaucous, growing on the leaves 

 when stung by an insect, which 

 there deposits its eggs. Cool, crisp, 

 and juicy, they are the delight of children, and put for 

 a day in spiced vinegar, make the first pickles of the 

 year. 



" But the name by which this May Queen of our 

 northern flora is dearest to New Netherland families 

 is Pingstcr-bloan, the flower of Pingster or Whitsun- 

 day. In the seventeenth century, the rocky glens and 

 woodland glades of the island of Manhattan were all 

 aglow with this pink azalea, blooming over a period 

 long enough to connect it with that movable feast, by 



348 



Leaves of Azalea nndiflora. 



