EUROPEAN RHODODENDRONS 21 
England, where it comes up freely in woods from self- 
sown seeds. It is one of the parents of the first hybrid 
Rhododendron raised in this country. It is commonly 
used as a stock for the more delicate kinds, and in the 
United States, according to Mr. Parsons, it is valuable not 
only as a stock for seedlings of R. catawbiense, but also for 
the Ghent Azaleas in places where they will not thrive on 
their own roots. There are old woods in England in which 
this fine, useful evergreen is represented by huge bushes, 
almost trees. In the Queen’s Cottage Grounds at Kew 
there are some grand masses which in May or ]une are 
mounds of purple flowers. 
There is another Pontic Rhododendron, known to 
gardeners as Azalea pontica, and to botanists as Rhododen- 
dron flavum. It is the deciduous, twiggy, hairy-leaved 
yellow or orange flowered shrub which grows a yard or so 
high, is as hardy as Box, and flowers profusely in spring. 
Seeds of it were first sent to England by Dr. P. Pallas, who 
collected them in the Crimea and gave them to Messrs. Lee 
and Kennedy of Hammersmith. This is the plant whose 
flowers are said to poison the honey obtained from them. 
Mr. H. J. Ross has stated in the Gardeners' Chronicle that 
the poisonous principle is got rid of by heating the honey. 
It has never been recorded that honey is affected in this 
country by this Azalea, although the flowers are favourites 
with bees. 
R. dahuricum was introduced into England from Russia 
by a Mr. Bush about one hundred years ago, and was 
distributed by Messrs. Lee and Kennedy. It is a rather 
scraggy, sparsely - leaved shrub, remarkable as an early 
flowerer, as it sometimes is in full bloom in January. It 
is one of the parents of that very useful hybrid, R. praecoXj 
