134 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



B. pOnticum is a native of, and named after Pontus in Asia 

 Minor ; cataiubiense from the river Catawba, in the Rockies of 

 North America. 



Both of these species, which greatly resemble one another in 

 blossom, though not in foliage, bloom in May and June, and I 

 know of none, excepting perhaps cinnabarinum and ferrugineum, 

 which bloom later. If, therefore, we desire to prolong the 

 period during which we can ride our hobby, we must begin 

 earlier in the year. 



And I am at once confronted with the test word imposed 

 upon me by my friend Mr. Wilks, who asks me to read a paper 

 on "Hardy Rhododendrons." The word " hardy " is a contentious 

 and comparative word. I am not afraid of winter frosts when I 

 describe to you the Rhododendrons and Azaleas on which I 

 have to speak. If I were so afraid, I should not be justified in 

 calling my favourites hardy. No, it is not the winter frosts — 

 assuming the wood formed in the preceding year to be well 

 ripened, they will stand very severe frosts — but it is the spring 

 frosts which so often attack us in April, May, and even June, 

 which we have to fear. 



These spring frosts may catch the plants at the most 

 succulent period of their growth, just when the sap is rising, and 

 they may suffer. I have seen in various seasons Oak, Ash, 

 Bracken Fern, and Bramble killed by such spring frosts ; yet we 

 do not in consequence hesitate to call these plants hardy. 



The young foliage of some of the more precocious Himalayan 

 Rhododendrons is in greater danger than that of the later 

 sorts, and the term " hardy " must, I conceive, always be regarded 

 more or less as a comparative term. 



The very extensive class of hardy hybrid Rhododendrons 

 has been gradually developed over a series of years, and their 

 production is dealt with by Burbidge in his "Propagation and 

 Improvement of Cultivated Plants," pages 292 ct seq., where he 

 tells us how many raisers of seedlings during the past fifty years 

 have gradually improved them. A Itaclerensc was raised from 

 the seed of cataiubiense fertilised with the pollen of a crimson 

 arborcum, and it was one of the earliest and most hardy kinds. 

 It was figured in the year 1835. 



Cataiubiense, maximum, caucasicum, and arboreum were 

 the principal parents employed in producing this class, which is 



