36 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 
Section IV 
Section V 
Purpureum 
Altaclarense 
ueen Victoria. 
caucasicum 
Arboreum album. 
Coriaceum. 
Section VI 
Section VII 
Catawbiense . . A 
Large Yellow Ghent ^Deception. 
Azalea . . . .J 
campanulatum Hybrid Cam- 
Hybrid maximum/ panulatum. 
The second half of the nineteenth century saw a develop- 
ment of the Rhododendron along certain lines. There was 
plenty of good material available for breeding, but the 
species were set aside in favour of the hybrids and crosses 
that had resulted from the operations of the earlier breeders. 
The principal workers in this field were the Waterers, 
Standish and Noble, Veitch, Cunningham, Dickson, and 
Lee, and every year brought a number of new seedlings 
which generally were advances on the earlier sorts. Their 
aim was to raise plants that were hardy, sturdy and shapely 
in growth, so that when not in flower they were good- 
looking shrubs, whilst the flower-heads, to satisfy the re- 
quirements of the time, were to be large and full, the flowers 
holding themselves up, of good substance, the colours 
pleasing, and, most important of all, they were not to expand 
before June. All these requirements were obtained in more 
or less degree, for we have now a considerable number of 
garden Rhododendrons in which they are in evidence. It 
is doubtful if this section of the family can be further im- 
proved, and breeders themselves admit that the plants that 
were raised twenty years ago were as good as any that have 
been raised since. Changes, of course, there have been, and 
will continue to be, but they are not necessarily advances. 
