FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS 417 



Name. 



Country or 



Origin and 



Natural Order. 



Colour 



AND 



Season. 



General Remarks. 



Rhododendron 



Rhodora 

 (Rhodora canadensis) 



North America 



Magenta- 

 purple ; 

 April 



R. Smirnowi 



Caucasus 



R. Thomsoni (see 



page 80) 

 R. yunnanense 



R. Hardy Hybrid 



Yunnan ; first 



flowered at Kew 



in 1899 



Crimson - 

 purple ; 

 3 inches 

 across ; 

 April and 

 May 



White, 

 with blood- 

 red spots on 

 upper petal; 



in loose 



clusters in 



May 



Not much grown, but colour 

 probably not popular. It 

 makes an upright deciduous 

 shrub, 3 feet to 4 feet, slender, 

 twiggy wood, and small ovate 

 lanceolate leaves. Should 

 have moist peaty soil. A 

 failure on dry and sandy 

 ground. Does not object to 

 partial shade. Easily in- 

 creased by seeds and layering. 



This has large flowers and 

 leaves, and, as recorded else- 

 where, has founded a distinct 

 race. It blooms freely when 

 about a foot or so high. The 

 leaves are about 5 inches long, 

 2 inches wide, and covered on 

 underside with a soft white felt. 



This is an erect shrub, with 

 glossy green leaves 2 to zj 

 inches wide. A very useful 

 shrub, and should not be 

 forgotten by the hybridist. 



Very few of the species of Rho- 

 • dodendron have not some 

 value either for out of doors 

 or under glass. Rhododen- 

 drons are vridely distributed, 

 species being found in 

 North America, Europe, and 

 through temperate Asia as 

 far south as the Malay Pen- 

 insula, the headquarters of 

 the genus being Western 

 Asia and the temperate 

 Himalaya. Rhododendrons 

 also differ greatly in size, 

 some very tall as R. arborea, 

 which is sometimes said to 

 grow to a height of 40 feet in 

 the Sikkim forests, to the 

 little alpine R. chamaecistus, 

 which rarely exceeds 6 inches 

 high. There is quite as 

 marked variation in the size 

 of the leaf, several species, 

 of which R. Falconeri may 

 be taken as a type, having 

 large and handsome leaves, 

 sometimes a foot high and 

 6 inches wide, whilst the 

 quaint little Japanese species 

 R. serpyllifolium has tiny 

 leaves not a third of an inch 

 long and of corresponding 

 width. The Rhododendron 



2^) 



