Chap. XIX. 



THE AZALEA. 



333 



mixing with the finer kind of tea, in order to give it 

 an agreeable perfume. 



In all these gardens the Azalea is propagated 

 readily and extensively. Layering is the common 

 method employed, but grafting and striking from 

 cuttings are also resorted to with success. During 

 the hot summer months, both young and old plants 

 are shaded from the mid-day sun. Most of these 

 new kinds which I have been describing flower early, 

 that is, in March and April : the section to which the 

 A. variegata belongs flowers in May. After the 

 flowering season has passed, the weather is generally 

 moist, owing to a change in the monsoon. It is at 

 this period that the plants grow most luxuriantly, and 

 form their young wood, and this growth is completed 

 and the wood ripened during the fine summer and 

 autumn which follow. These northern Azaleas are 

 exposed to severe colds during the winter. As I have 

 already observed, the thermometer often sinks to 

 within a few degrees of zero, and the weather is not 

 unlike that which we have in England. 



The Azalea is indigenous to China, and is found 

 wild on every hill side, like the heath of our own 

 country. About Hong-kong and Canton it is usually 

 found in a wild state high up on the sides of the 

 mountains, from 1000 to 2000 feet above the level of 

 the sea. In latitude 25° north, in the province of 

 Fold en, it is met with in less elevated situations, that 

 is, from 500 to 1000 feet high ; and when we reach 

 Chusan, in latitude 30° north, we find it growing 

 plentifully on the lower sides of all the hills, and 



