VINES AND SHRUBS 



celled, many -seeded. Flowers, large, showy, delightfully fra- 

 grant, in heavy corymbose heads on stout peduncles from the 

 axils of the leaves, from which also one or more pairs of oppo- 

 site, leafy branches spring. May and June. 



Many regard this as our most beautiful American shrub. 

 The color of the great masses of flowers varies from white to 

 deep pink. The top-shape buds are of a still deeper color, 

 io-ridged, the ridges meeting at the center. In deep moun- 

 tain ravines it may attain the height of 20 feet; usually it is 

 4 or 5 feet high. It often covers acres with a close growth of 

 luxuriant, rich foliage. We should take pains in its season to 

 visit our laurel groves, where its rolls of blossoms, mixed with 

 clumps of azalea, border a lake or stream, or stray up a 

 mountain-side. South of Pennsylvania it often becomes a 

 small tree. 



Clammy Azalea. White Swamp Honeysuckle 



Rhododendron <viscosum. — Family, Heath. Color, white. Leaves, 

 alternate, oblong, smooth, except the margins and midrib, which 

 are bristly. Calyx, small, 5-parted. Corolla, tubular, with 5 

 spreading lobes, shorter than the clammy, sticky tube. Stamens, 

 5, with long, protruding, red filaments. The anthers open by a 

 round, terminal pore. Style, hairy. Fruit, a. 5-celled capsule. 

 Flowers, large, showy, deliciously fragrant, in clusters, which 

 grow from early spring flower - buds of numerous, overlapping 

 scales. 6 to 12 blossoms springing from the same point, all on 

 a short stalk, make a corymb-like cluster. At the base of each 

 flower-stalk there are bract-like scales. The tube is beset with 

 clammy, viscous, brown hairs. June and July. 



This plant takes readily to cultivation, and our florists 

 have in bloom about Easter great pots of magnificent azaleas 

 to mingle warmth and fire with the soft, pale, cold, Easter 

 lilies. 



Maine to Florida, not far from the coast. Especially in 

 swamps. 



Great Laurel. American Rose-bay 



R. maximum has leaves thick and leathery, with stiff, turned- 

 back margins, evergreen, oblong or broadly elliptical, glossy 

 green (when old, rusty brown), 4 to 8 inches long, on hollow, 

 flattened petioles. Calyx, 5-parted. Corolla, tubular. Stamens, 

 10. July. 



A near relative to the azalea, with great, broad bunches of 

 blossoms, white or pink, the petals spotted. Corolla 1 or 2 



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