A HANDSOME FAMILY. 



UMMER tourists who know any- 

 thing of the flora of western 

 North CaroHna usually come 

 early in order to be in time for 

 that rarest sight of the season — 

 the rhododendron show. The 

 dense mass of rich evergreen 

 foliage, which all winter long has 

 made beautiful our foot-hills and mountain sides, 

 from early May till July is gemmed with great 

 waxen clusters of white and rose-pink flowers, 

 which gleam out brilliantly from amidst their dark 

 setting. The tightly folded conical yellow buds, 

 that, iron-clad, defied the frost-king, and through- 

 out the winter guarded jealously all this sleeping 

 beauty, now lavishly yield it up to festoon lofty 

 mountain tops and bury the hillsides under great 

 banks of bloom. 



All through the mountain region of North Carolina, 

 Georgia and Alabama, these rhododendron forests 

 abound, and are a glorious sight, both to strangers and 

 native. Such forests occur rarely also (for the rhodo- 

 dendron might be called a local plant) in New England. 

 Near Fitzwilliam, N. H., is a forest of twelve or thir- 

 teen acres, and there are several smaller ones in other 

 sections of the same latitude. 



It is Rliododendron maxinium, the great mountain 

 laurel, and the most superb of the species, which makes 

 such a wonderland of our woods in spring-time. Enter 

 a path cut through one of these forests, and see how 

 noon-day changes to twilight under the thick canopy of 

 great, shining leathery leaves. Here, in mid-winter, 

 the feeble folk of the forest come for refuge, the thick 

 thatch sheltering them from wind and rain ; and snow, 

 bending the lithe branches, heaps itself about thick 

 leaf clusters into warm cozy coverts for wild bird and 

 cony. 



Bend down one of the branches and you will see that 

 the leaves alternate in arrangement, eight to ten inches 

 long and three or four wide ; are thickest and largest 

 just beneath the flower cone, forming a wide green 

 whorl, and so a single cluster makes a big bouquet, for 

 the individual flower often measures two inches across 

 the corolla. 



This corolla is somewhat bell shaped, very rosy in 

 bud, but whiter on opening and dotted with pale yellow 

 about the throat. The stamens are usually ten in num- 

 ber, and with the slender style, are rarely exserted, as 

 in the azalea section of the genus rhododendron. The 

 pedicels and the scaly bracts which enclose the cun- 

 ning pink buds are viscid and sticky, and thus the gauzy 

 wings of many an unwary insect prove its death trap. 



American rose-bays, our laurels are sometimes called, 

 and this name is much prettier than the longer one of 

 rhododendron, taken from a Greek word meaning "rose 

 tree.'' A tree R. maximmn certainly is, for here in its 

 chosen habitat it often grows to the height of twenty- 

 five or thirty feet, with a still wider girth about the 

 outermost tips of its branches. Often these branches 

 in growing curve and turn and twist themselves into 

 many fantastic shapes and figures, and as the bark is 

 rich bright brown in color, striated like the grain of 

 oak, the gnarliest stems with quaintest crooks are used 

 for making rustic vases, settees and tables by the deft 

 fingered mountain lads, who sell them for quite a fine 

 price. 



Besides R. niaxiinuin, there are only about six other 

 species of rose-bay found on our western continent. R. 

 Caiatvbiense is found on the higher mountains of Virginia 

 and North Carolina. R. lapponicttm is prostrate ; violet- 

 purple ; White mountains to Labrador. R. piinctaiutn — - 

 Sweet ; dwarf, and white ; North Carolina and Georgia. 

 R. Chapniani — Stamens and style exserted ; pine barrens 

 of western Florida. R. macrophyllum — rWest of Rocky 

 mountains. R. Kamschaticnin — Near Behring's strait. 



There are no rose-bays in Mexico, Oregon, Africa or 

 Australia, countries where one might well expect them, 

 but the Himalayas are their best loved home, and more 

 than forty varieties are found there, at altitudes rang- 

 ing from 6,000 to 18,000 feet above the sea. 



Sir William Hooker, the great botanist, grew quite 

 enthusiastic over them, and ran many risks to obtain 

 specimens. Braving the vengeance of a hostile rajah, 

 he found eleven distinct varieties on Mt. Darjeeling, no' 

 far from Calcutta. Many of these were epiphytes, 

 growing high up in the tops of towering oaks, pines 

 and magnolias. 



R. Dalhousii is the handsomest of these. The plant 

 stalk grows to be five or six feet, and the corolla of its 

 blossom is often four inches across, pure white, changing 

 with age to orange, dotted rose color. It has a citrine 

 perfume, and bears six or seven of its great lily-like 

 flowers in a cluster. 



To gain a good specimen of R. Edgeworthii, Hooker 

 made friends with a landslide, which brought it care- 

 fully down within his reach from an inaccessible moun- 

 tain top. 



R. Hodgsonii is, perhaps, the best combination of 

 useful and beautiful to be found in this great family. 

 Its bright pink flowers are exquisite, and its wood so 

 tough and unyielding that cups, spoons and ladles are 

 made of it by the Bhootan natives, and also the little 

 " tak " saddle, from which their pack-loads swing. Its 

 leaves are used as plates, for lining baskets, etc., and a 

 present of butter or curd is always sent on this glossy 

 foliage. 



