204 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



the British shrubbery in the year 1763, where 

 it still continues to display its clusters of fine 

 purple blossoms, during the months of May 

 and June, to the delight of all the lovers of 

 flowering shrubs. In the royal gardens at 

 Kew there are groves of these plants, which, 

 when in full flower, present a mass of purple 

 beauties that are splendid beyond description. 

 The original birth-place of this shrub is 

 thought to have been in the southern subal- 

 pine tracts of Caucasus, where it still abounds 

 in wet places, particularly in beech and alder 

 woods; but it is not now confined to the 

 neighbourhood of the Black sea, as it has 

 extended itself to many places of the Levant, 

 and reached even to Gibraltar. A variety of 

 this or a similar species of rhododendron is 

 also distributed over a great part of Siberia, 

 and has been observed through the deserts of 

 Mogul Tartary, to China and Thibet. It 

 grows very commonly in the pine forests ; 

 and in some parts in such profusion and so 

 densely as to make whole tracts appear a 

 sheet of purple in April and May. This 

 species was introduced from Russia, by Mr. 

 Thomas Bell, in 1800. The leaves of this 

 species are sometimes used as a substitute 

 for those of the tea-tree. * 



* Bot. Keg. 



