XX. 9, THE SWAMP PINK. 387 
land, and if care be taken to protect it from the scorching heat 
of summer, and to place it in a sheltered situation where it shall 
not be exposed to the severest winds of winter. It richly de- 
serves a place in every garden. 
It is the most beautiful native fower of Massachusetts, and 
is singularly well fitted to ornament a parlor. A flower-bud 
not beginning to open has been placed in a vase, where it 
opened its flowers as well as if left on the stem; and the flowers 
continued fresh and beautiful more than fifteen days. 
Section Azatea.—The Azaleas differ from the true Rhodo- 
dendrons in having only five stamens, and their leaves decidu- 
ous. ‘They differ still more in habit and properties. The 
flowers are large and fragrant, and, in the different species, 
they are yellow, white, flesh-colored, rose-red, or variegated, 
and covered externally with hairs or witha glandular pubes- 
cence. ‘Ihe Pontic Azalea, the one longest known and culti- 
vated, has yellow, orange or white flowers, which exhale a 
fragrance similar to that of the honeysuckle, but stronger, and 
reputed unwholesome. 
Sp. 1. Tur Swamp Pins. Win Honeysuczre. R. viscdsum. 
Torrey. Azdlea viscdsa. L. 
Figured in Audubon’s Birds, IT, Plate 115. 
A flowering shrub, growing abundantly in open woods or on 
their borders, in low, wet grounds, in most parts of New Eng- 
land. Springing from a small root, with an ashen or slaty and 
various colored or clouded stem, seldom more than an inch 
in diameter, and throwing out branches in imperfect whorls or 
stages, this beautiful plant rises to a bushy head at six or 
eight feet from the ground. In the end of May, the season at 
which the flowering begins, it is remarkable for its large, cone- 
like flower-buds, composed of many scales, which, opening and 
falling, expose to view bunches of fragrant, irregular flowers. 
The leaves are alternate, or in tufts of five or six, at the end of 
the branchlets which encircle the flower-stalk. They are in- 
versely egg-shaped, pointed at the end with a brown, callous 
