S2 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



vulgar, influences my opinion; for I have no such 

 prejudice against lovely Rhododendron racemosum. This 

 makes a charming wee bush (and grows admirably with 

 me) clothed with hard little ovate leaves, greyish beneath ; 

 and the abundant flowers are of a rich and lovely soft 

 apple-blossom pink. The plant is of recent introduction, 

 and shows no signs of becoming commoner, though quite 

 easy to grow. Of the small Rhododendrons I think it 

 incomparably the best — unless I am to make an excep- 

 tion in favour of the newly-shown and figured R. intri- 

 catum, which, if the Botanical Magazine tells truth, has 

 big flowers that verge on blue ! As to this, the Jew 

 Ofella can think as he chooses ; the colour is by report a 

 very rare attractive shade. Otherwise the little Rhodo- 

 dendrons run dreadfully to unclean lilacs. Myrtifolium, 

 ovatum, parviflorum are all useful plants ; so is their 

 cousin, the deciduous Rhodora canadensis, an American 

 peat-bog plant, of rather untidy habit, with dull flowers 

 of bad tone that appear before the leaves. As for Rhodo- 

 dendron Jcamschaticum, this much-vaunted rarity is not, 

 I think, worthy of a high place. It is a minute, almost 

 arctic shrub, wiry and frail-growing, with very large 

 single blooms, which alas ! (at least whenever I have seen 

 it) were of a sad, unmeritorious magenta. 



Of Chamaecistus I have already spoken, but one Azalea- 

 Rhododendron remains to be described, much more in 

 sorrow than in anger. This is the marvel that I talked 

 of in the Garden of Asia as Azalea 'Gloria,' and before 

 its beauty all other Azaleas flee and hide their heads. 

 And I say this deliberately ; as you go up to Nikko and 

 beyond, to Yumoto, all the wild hills, to eight thousand 

 feet and more, are a rolling prairie fire of Azaleas, in 

 every shade of splendour, from the candid amber or 

 salmon of mollis, through the t^hole gamut of yellows, 

 white and orange, to scarlet, crimson and violet. And 



