HARDY RHODODENDRONS AND AZALEAS. 



141 



4728) and Azalea ovata (B.M. 5064) are small species from 

 North China, and are, I believe, quite hardy. 



One of the most valuable floral introductions into England in 

 this century has been the Rhododendron sinense, or, as it is more 

 usually called, Azalea mollis, above referred to. 



In the Botanical Magazine, table 5905, we are told it is a 

 native of Japan, and introduced into England by Fortune in 

 1845, and figured in the Magazine in 1870 from Mr. Bull's 

 establishment at Chelsea — being then still a very scarce plant in 

 English gardens. As it lends itself very kindly to forcing, and 

 can be got into bloom easily very early in the year, we usually 

 see it as a pot plant ; but it seems to be quite hardy, very floriferous, 

 and easy to raise from seed, and useful to the hybridist. Indeed 

 our prospects in this latter direction are brilliant, and the results 

 already obtained raise still brighter hopes of the seedlings which 

 we may yet see from ringing the changes on pontica, Ghent, 

 mollis and other Azaleas, and should encourage us to further 

 work in the same line. 



Discussion. 



Sir Alexander Arbuthnot, referring to the lecturer's state- 

 ment that anything like lime was fatal to Rhododendrons, and 

 that peat was by no means essential to their wellbeing, said that it 

 was often the case that plants grown in good soil and apparently 

 in a healthy condition did not produce nearly as much bloom as 

 might have been expected from them. A friend had told him that 

 in the neighbourhood of Cobham peat and loam were given to the 

 plants, and in the autumn a dressing of cow-manure, which had 

 an excellent effect in inducing very vigorous growth, larger buds, 

 and eventually larger flowers. He would be glad to hear if this 

 treatment might be recommended by the lecturer, whose experience 

 was probably confined to the south-west of Wales, and would 

 therefore possibly be different from those living in the southern 

 counties in England. Sir John Arbuthnot said his own place 

 was within a few miles of Highclere — one of the first places in 

 the country where any attention had been devoted to Rhododen- 

 drons —and he said they suffered there more from the hard frosts 

 than in the more northern counties. Every year he found some 

 of the commoner sorts were lost through the frosts in the early 

 autumn (September) whenever there had been much rain in the 

 preceding summer. 



