RHODODENDRONS 



der of all travelers; and it has come to pass that 

 larger and larger plantations of the native kinds 

 are being used in parks and country-places. The 

 foliage of both those varieties is entirely satisfactory 

 and if it were not that the flowers are somewhat 

 insignificant and wanting in richness of color 

 there would be no necessity for going to England 

 for rhododendrons. 



In the process of improving the various kinds 

 in both England and on the Continent, hybrid- 

 izing and selection of seedlings have been used 

 with most remarkable results. Ponticum from 

 Asia Minor; arboreum from the Himalayas, 

 and still other kinds have been used to enrich 

 and vary the color of the petal and increase the 

 size of the truss of flowers. Many of these kinds 

 have failed to be hardy in England, others do 

 well there and yet do not thrive in America. 



The skill of the growers is great, but they can not 

 make the kinds that are imbued with the southern 

 blood always stand the rigors of the north even 

 in England. Moreover, many more plants die 

 there than is ordinarily supposed. On the other 

 hand, there are nooks and corners all over Eng- 

 land and Scotland, particularly in the South, 

 where the tenderest rhododendrons thrive in an 

 astonishing manner; but this affords no criterion 

 for selecting kinds suitable to America. The 

 more tender varieties are likely to have a strain 

 of the arboreum blood in the catawbiense type, 

 although the breeding of plants is apt to reveal 

 strange freaks of inheritance. 



[87] 



