RHODODENDRON FRAGRANS. 
(Fragrant-flowered Rose-bay.) 
Class. Order. 
DECANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
ERICACEAE. 
Generic Character.— Calyx five-parted. Corolla 
somewhat funnel-shaped, or campanulate ; rarely rotate 
or five-parted ; limb five-cleft, somewhat bilabiate ; 
upper lip the broadest, and usually spotted. Stamens 
five to ten, usually exserted, declinate ; anthers open- 
ing by two terminal pores. Capsule five-celled, five- 
valved, rarely ten-celled and ten-valved, with a 
septicidal dehiscence at the apex. Placentas simple, 
angular. Seeils compressed, scrobiform, winged. Don's 
Gard. and Botany. 
Specific Character.— Plant a very dwarf compact 
evergreen shrub. Leaves dense, small, oblong, slightly 
wrinkled. Flowers pale pinkish lilac, of various 
shades. 
In calling at the nursery of Messrs. Chandler and Sons, Vauxhall, at the time 
their splendid Camellias were in bloom, this spring, we were much pleased to 
notice some slightly forced specimens of the beautiful Rhododendron now figured, 
then flowering most liberally in a greenhouse, and remarkable for its delicate and 
agreeable odour. As this characteristic is an unusual one in the genus, though 
here very distinctly perceptible, and as the R. fragrans is, likewise, in all respects 
an interesting and ornamental object, we now supply a drawing, which was made 
at Messrs. Chandler's in the month of May. 
The plant is probably a hybrid between R. catawbiense and some of the hardy 
fragrant-flowered Azaleas ; though it was raised accidentally, from seed of a variety 
of R. catawbiense, twenty-five or thirty yeas ago. It forms a very compact dwarf 
shrub, decidedly evergreen, with small and dense foliage, and numerous clusters of 
pretty pale pinkish lilac blossoms, in which there is a variety of delicate tints, 
approaching to white in the centre. It has quite the habit of a Rhododendron, and 
looks like a small, close-growing, pale-flowered variety of R. ponticum, with the 
leaves a little wrinkled, and destitute of much glossiness. Its natural flowering 
season is early in May, when the other Rhododendrons bloom. 
On account of the difference in its aspect from the common varieties of R. 
ponticum, and the delicate fragrance of its blossoms, it is well suited for the front 
of shrubbery borders, or for giving variety to beds of R. ponticum, by being placed 
