Q.5S] CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION 



GENUS 52. RHODODENDRON. 



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Shrubs or low trees with usually alternate, entire leaves 

 and showy flowers in umbel-like clusters from large, scaly - 

 bracted, terminal buds. Fruit a dry 5-ceDed pod with 

 many seeds. 



Rhododendron maximum, L. (GREAT 

 LAUREL.) Leaves thick, 4 to 10 in. long, 

 elliptical-oblong or lance-oblong, acute, 

 narrowed toward the base, very smooth, 

 with somewhat revolute margins. Flowers 

 large (1 in.), with an irregular bell-shaped 

 corolla and sticky stems, in large clusters, 

 white or slightly pinkish with yellowish 

 dots. July. Evergreen shrub or tree, 6 to 20 

 ft. high, throughout the region, especially 

 in damp swamps in the Alleghany Moun- 

 tains ; occasionally cultivated. 



GENUS 53. CIiijTHRA. 



R. m&ximum. 



Shrubs or trees with alternate, simple, deciduous, ex- 

 stipulate, serrate leaves. Flowers (July and August) con- 

 spicuous, white, in elongated terminal racemes which are 

 covered with a whitish powder. Fruit 3-celled pods with 

 many seeds, covered by the calyx. 



* Leaves thin, large, 3 to 7 in. long, pale beneath 1. 



* Leaves thickish, smaller, green both sides 2. 



1 . CISthra acuminata, Michx. (ACU- 

 MINATE-LEAVED CLETHRA. SWEET PEP- 

 PER-BUSH.) Leaves 3 to 7 in. long, oval 

 to oblong, pointed, thin, abruptly acute 

 at base, finely serrate, on slender petioles, 

 smooth above and glaucous below. Ra- 

 cemes drooping, of sweet-scented flowers, 

 with the bracts longer than the flowers. 

 Filaments and pod hairy. A small tree 

 or shrub, 10 to 20 ft. high, in the Alle- 

 ghanies, Virginia, and south. Not often 

 in cultivation, but well worthy of it. 



0. acuminata. 



