G. 53) CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION 117 
Genus 52. RHODODENDRON. 
Shrubs or low trees with usually alternate, entire leaves 
and showy flowers in umbel-like clusters from large, scaly- 
bracted, terminal buds. Fruit a dry 5-celled pod with 
many seeds. 
Rhododéndron maximum, L. (GREAT 
LavREL.) Leaves thick, 4 to 10 in. long, 
elliptical-oblong or lance-oblong, acute, 
narrowed toward the base, very smooth, 
with somewhat revolute margins. ‘lowers 
large (1 in.), with an irregular bell-shaped 
corolla and sticky stems, in large clusters, 
white or slightly pinkish with yellowish 
dots. July. Evergreen shrub or tree, 6 to 20 
ft. high, throughout the region, especially 
in damp swamps in the Alleghany Moun- 
tains; occasionally cultivated. 
Genus 58. CLETHRA. 
Shrubs or trees with alternate, simple, deciduous, ex- 
stipulate, serrate leaves. Flowers (July and August) con- 
spiouous, white, in elongated terminal racemes which are 
covered with a whitish powder. Fruit 3-celled pods with 
many seeds, covered by the calyx. 
* Leaves thin, large, 3 to 7 in. long, pale beneath............... 1. 
* Leaves thickish, smaller, green both sides............ «2-0. 2. 
1. Cléthra acuminata, Michx. (Ac 
MINATE-LEAVED CLETHRA. SWEET PEP- 
PER-BUSH.) Leaves 3 to 7 in. long, oval 
to oblong, pointed, thin, abruptly acute 
at base, finely serrate, on slender petioles, 
smooth above and glaucous below. Ra- 
cemes drooping, of sweet-scented flowers, 
with the bracts longer than the flowers. 
Filaments and pod hairy. A small tree 
or shrub, 10 to 20 ft. high, in the Alle- 
ghanies, Virginia, and south. Not often 
in cultivation, but well worthy of it. 
