CATALOGUE OF THE HIGHLANDS NURSERY. 
15 
RHODODENDRON VaSEYI. 
See cut on page 16. 
The folloiving detailed description of this new and beautiful shrub was kindly fur- 
nished us by Capt. John Donnell Smith, of Baltimore : 
Rhododendron {Azalea) Vaseyi, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad., vol. xv, p. 48; Botanical 
Gazette, vol. viii, p. 282. 
Shrub, 8-i5ft. high; branches glabrous; bud-scales imbricated; leaves mem- 
branaceous, sparingly pubescent — hairy or smooth, from obovate-oblong to oblong- 
lanceolate, acute or acuminate at both ends, 3-6 in. long; pedicels slender, glandu- 
lar, recurved after flowering; calyx very short, truncate; corolla roseate, glabrous 
within and without, rotate, campanulate, irregularly and bilabiately ^-parted or 
nearly so, with the lateral sinuses deeper, and those of the obovate divisions more 
connected than those of the other two, upper lobes more or less spotted inside to- 
ward base; stamens 7, occasionally only 5, three-fourths of them larger and with 
stouter filaments; style with the stamens a little exceeding the corolla ; ovary beset 
with stipulate viscid glands. Blossoming precocious rather than coetaneus with the 
leafing. 
Collected first by Mr. George Vasey, June, 1878, and subsequently by Mr. S. T. 
Kelsey and Capt. John Donnell Smith. 
"This is a most interesting species," remarks Dr. Gray, "as adding to our 
Flora a representative of that group of East Asiatic species of the true Azalea sub- 
genus, with campanulate or rotate campanulate corollas, and very deciduous perulge 
to the separate flower beds. It contributes another to the now very numerous cases 
of remarkable relationship between the Chino-Japanese and the AUeglianian floras." 
We also quote from an article (published in 1885), written by botanists and 
horticulturists : 
» * * " -pi^g latest addition to American flowering shrubs is Rhododendron 
Vaseyi, which remained undetected until four or five years ago, when Mr. Vasey 
found it in Jackson County, near Webster, N. C. It was also discovered about the 
same time in Cashier's Valley. The discovery was particularly interesting as it be- 
longs to a section of the genus almost exclusively Asiatic, entirely unrepresented in 
our Atlantic flora, and with its nearest American relative confined to the highest 
peaks of the Cascades and Northern Rocky Mountains. It is a tall shrub— 12 to 15 
feet high — with bright, purple, pink, scentless flowers, and, unlike our other rhodo- 
dendrons, with deciduous leaves. It is easily transplanted, adapts itself readily to 
cultivation, and promises to become an important addition to our garden flora." 
We would only add, that, as an ornamental plant, it is hardly excelled by any in 
cultivation of this character, and produces a fine effect when used either as a single 
lawn specimen or planted in clumps ; no collection of plants is complete without 
the addition of this beautiful and rare Rhododendron. See prices on page p. 
