RHODODENDRON VASEYI. 
RHODODENDRON VASEYI. 
The following description of this new 
and beautiful shrub was furnished by 
Capt. John Donnell Smith, of Baltimore : 
Rhododendron (Azalea) Vaseyi, Gray, 
Proe. Amer. Acad. vol. xv. to. 48 ; Bo- 
tanical Gaz. vol. vm. p. 
Shrub. 8ft -15 ft. high ; branches gla- 
broiLs ; bud-scales imbricated ; leaves 
membranaceous, sparingly pubescent — 
hairy or smooth, from obovate-oblong 
to oblong-lanceolate, acute or acu- 
minate at both ends, 3 in.-6 in. long; 
pedicels slender, glandular, recurved 
after flowering ; calyx very short, trun- 
cate ; corolla roseate, glabrous within and 
without, rotate, campanulate, irregularly 
and bilabiately 5-parted or nearly so, 
with the lateral sinuses deeper, and rhose 
of the obovate divisions more connected 
than the other two, upper lobes more or 
less spotted inside towards 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 stipitate 
viscid glands. Blossoming precocious 
rather than coetaneons with the leafing. 
Collected first by Mr. George Vasey 
June, 1878, seven miles south-west from 
Webster, Jackson County, N. C. ; subse- 
quently by Mr. S. T. Kelsey and ('apt. 
John Donnell Smith along spring drains 
and ravines, Chimney Top Gap between 
Cashiers and Fairfield Valleys, Jackson 
Co., N. C. 
This is a most interesting species, re- 
marks Dr. Gray, a; adding to our Flora a 
representative of that group of East 
Asiatic species of the true Azalea sub- 
genus, with campanulate or rotate-cam - 
panulate corollas, and very deciduous 
]<erulae to the separate flower-buds. It 
contributes another to the now very 
numerous cases of remarkable relation- 
ship between the Chino-Japanese and the 
Alleghanian floras. 
A scientific gentleman writes for the 
Philadelphia Press of Oct. 7, 1885 : "I 
recently rode through the mountains of 
Western North Carolina. * * So many 
of the finest trees and shrubs in cultiva- 
tion attain their, best development in this 
region, that it may be worth while to 
note the appearance of some of them at 
home. Except, perhaps, on the high 
slopes of the Himalayas, or the moun- 
tains of Java, the various species of rho- 
dodendron nowhere are found in such 
profusion and luxuriance. '■' * 
" But beyond question', the most beau- 
tiful of all flowering shrubs are the aza- 
leas, and four of the five species found on 
this continent are here massed together 
in the greatest profusion and luxuriance. 
The flame-colored azalea — A. calendula- 
cea — is the most showy. Here it often 
attains a height of twelve feet and covers 
hundreds of acres. It is the blood of this 
species Which gives vigor and color to the 
hybrid Ghent azaleas. Azalea arbores- 
cens, which has but recently been intro- 
duced into cultivation, is a white flowered 
and late blooming species, which here 
lines all the water courses; — a stately 
shrub fifteen or twenty feet high. A. 
visCOBa and A. nudiflora, the white and 
pink species not uncommon in Northern 
woods and swamps, here mingle with the 
other species in an abundance and vigor 
unknown in other parts of the country. 
* * The latest addition to American 
flowering. shrubs is Rhododendron Vasogi 
which remained undetected until four or 
live years ago, when Mr. Vasey found it 
in Jackson county, near AVebster, N. C. 
It was also discovered about the same 
time in Cashiers Valley. The discovery 
was particu'arly interesting, as it belongs 
to a section of the genus almost exclu- 
sively Asiatic, entirely unrepresented in 
our Atlantic flora, and with its nearest 
American relative confined to the highest 
peaks of the Cascade and Northern Rocky 
Mountains. It is a tall shrub — twelve to 
fifteen feet high— with bright, purple-pink 
scentless flowers, and unlike our other 
rhododendrons, With deciduous leaves. 
It is easily transplanted, adapts itself 
readily to cultivation, and promises to 
become an important addition to our gar- 
den flora. An interesting experiment 
in hybridization might be made in cross- 
ing this plant with some of the azaleas " 
— Sexex. 
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