140 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



feet in circumference. This is one of the original politician, and 

 has always been looked upon as a large example. 



To most people the Azalea is known as of more deciduous 

 habit, and of slenderer and more delicate growth, than the Rhodo- 

 dendron. I follow, however, the high authority of Hooker, who 

 tells us that "botanists are now pretty well agreed in considering 

 that the Azalea can no longer be considered a distinct genus from 

 the Rhododendron," the characters, taken from habit, foliage, form 

 of corolla, number of stamens and ovarian cells, which have 

 hitherto been used to distinguish Azalea all reappearing, singly 

 or several together, in many of the numerous species of Rhodo- 

 dendron which have lately been discovered. I have therefore 

 followed the eminent Japanese traveller and botanist Maxi- 

 mowicz in assuming Sweet's old name of Rhododendron sinense 

 for the Azalea mollis of more recent authors. 



The current number of the Gardeners' Chronicle holds the 

 same doctrine, and describes and figures an Azaleo-Dendron, a 

 cross of interest and beauty (B.M. 5905). 



Two sorts of Azalea were common in our ancestors' gardens, 

 going back into the last century : 1, Pontica ; 2, The Ghent 

 varieties. 



We may take jyontica as the commonest species. Large, 

 sweet, hardy and brilliant, it forms a standard of beauty as a 

 species, but nature does not appear to offer us much variety of 

 colouring from which the hybridist or raiser of seedling varieties 

 has an opportunity of starting. Sow a thousand seeds, and you 

 obtain a thousand duplicates, or nearly so, and a white variety 

 of pontica is figured in the Botanical Magazine in 1821, table 

 2383, as a curiosity. 



But with respect to the other above-named sorts, the Ghent 

 Azaleas, we have sweetness and hardiness, and a splendid varia- 

 tion of colouring, but at the expense of size, as they are mostly 

 small, and used to be called " Honeysuckle Azaleas." They were 

 called Ghent Azaleas because they were raised by the Ghent 

 nurserymen, though they are in reality, I believe, American, and 

 obtained by the intercrossing of three, if not more, American 

 species : Nudiflora (B.M. 180), calcndulacca (B.M. 1721 and 

 2143), and occidentalis (B.M. 5005). Of Azalea indica I do 

 not here propose to speak, as it is not hardy— though indica alba 

 lives and blooms out in favoured spots. Azalea amccna (B.M. 



