62 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



in perfection is Cobham Park, near Gravesend ; but the 

 London parks can show fine groups, and the nurseries 

 at Bagshot and Woking are renowned throughout the 

 world, not only for the mere growing of rhododendrons," 

 but for the multiplicity of magnificent hybrids that have 

 .been obtained by systematic labour long continued. There 

 we shall find them in the opening of the summer gaily 

 dressed with banners of scarlet, crimson, rose, purple, white; 

 with shades of yellow, amber, brown, blue, and even black. 

 And many of the splendid hybrids are as hardy as the more 

 common plant before us ; and their beautiful colours and 

 floral characters give a special interest to the magnificent 

 exhibitions that are annually held in the Botanic Gardens, 

 Regent's Park, and elsewhere in places of public resort. 



The common purple rhododendron appears to have 

 been introduced to cultivation in this country in the 

 year 1763. It is described in Martyn's edition of 

 "Miller" (1807) as "native of the Levant and Gibral- 

 tar; also of Georgia, in the southern sub-Alpine tracts 

 of Caucasus, and where it affects wet places in beech and 

 alder coppices, on rocky mountains, but not on high 

 Alps." In Aiton's " Hortus Kewensis " (1811) there are 

 three references to technical descriptions of the plant, and 

 one of them carries us to the only authentic figure we have 

 succeeded in finding ; for this being a very " common " 

 plant, the picture-makers are quite unable to look up to 

 it. The figure is in the Botanical Magazine, t. 650 (1803), 

 and, though truthful and sufficient, is a far inferior figure 

 to the one now before the reader. This is to be explained 

 by the fact that a good garden variety has been selected 

 for the present purpose ; and our specimen is characterised 

 by broad petals and a great depth of colour. 



