386 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
varies in different exposures and on different plants, with every 
shade of rose and flesh-color to pure white. The stamens are 
ten, very unequal, inclining towards the lower side of the 
flower, of the color of the corolla, on slender filaments, which 
are larger and densely covered with silky down near the base. 
The anthers consist of two short sacks, opening at the apex 
with round, bordered pores, and discharging white pollen. ‘The 
ovary is roundish, surmounted by a curved style which gradu- 
ally enlarges upwards and terminates in a broad, five-sided, 
stigmatic surface. The capsule is egg-shaped, five-angled and 
five-celled, with numerous, minute seeds. 
The rose bay is found as far north as the town of Standish, 
on the borders of Sebago Lake, in Maine. It grows in great 
abundance in an extensive swamp in Medfield, not far from 
Charles River, and in a smaller one in Attleborough. It every- 
where delights in deep, moist shades. In the Northern States, 
it occurs only at intervals, in protected situations. It is of 
more frequent occurrence in the Middle States, and in the deep 
valleys among the higher ranges of the Alleghanies, especially 
in Virginia, it becomes so abundant, according to Michaux, on 
the sides of the mountain torrents, as to form impenetrable 
thickets, in which the bear finds a secure retreat from the pur- 
suit of dogs and hunters. 
Pursh describes three marked varieties of the American Rose 
Bay. ‘The first, with rose-colored flowers, found in the moun- 
tains, by rivulets and lakes, from Canada to Carolina, flowering 
in June and July; the second, with smaller flowers perfectly 
white, in the shady cedar swamps of Now Jersey and Dela- 
ware, flowering in July and August; the third, with purple 
flowers, growing on the highest mountains of Virginia and Ca- 
rolina, near Jakes, and flowering in May and Jur. This last 
grows toa large size, with a stem eightcen inches 1a diameter, 
and foliage thrice the size of any other variety. He considers it 
as approaching the Pontic Rhododendron. The two former 
varieties, which differ only in the color and size of the flowers, 
are to be found in Massachusetts. 
The Dwarf Rose Bay is readily cultivated, if planted in the 
peat or bog soil which is everywhere to be found in New Eng- 
