80 
which is now covered with large clusters of pink flowers. It is a large 
vigorous shrub which has been growing here for several years and has 
never suffered from cold nor failed to bloom. When the plant is fully 
exposed to the sun, however, the leaves often drop and their edges in- 
fold, and it does better in partial shade. The leaves are pale grayish 
green above, and below are thickly covered with pale felt which suc- 
cessfully protects them from the attacks of the lace-wing fly. The 
flowers are of good size and of pleasant shades of pink, and are borne 
in large clusters. As compared with the dark green leaves of R. cataw- 
biense those of this species are less attractive. Several hybrids of R. 
Smirnoivii with varieties of R. catawbiense have been raised in Europe, 
and there are a few of these in the Arboretum collection. They have 
proved to be good garden plants here, flowering rather earlier than 
R. Smirnowii itself and producing larger pink flowers; they have never 
been injured in the Arboretum, but as there is only a trace of the felt 
left on their leaves they will probably suffer from the attacks of the 
lace-wing fly. 
The four species of eastern North America, R. minus, R. punctatum, 
R. catawbiense and R. maximum are perfectly hardy. The first is a 
dwarf plant from the high Appalachian Mountains with rose-pink flow- 
ers, and one of the handsomest of the dwarf Rhododendrons which can 
be grown in this climate. It has only been recognized in recent years 
but is becoming popular and can now be found in large quantities in 
several North American nurseries. • There is a white variety which is 
a much less attractive plant. R. punctatum blooms later than the so- 
called Catawbiense Hybrids, and although a larger plant than R. car- 
olinianum with slightly larger pink flowers is not as good a garden 
plant for the flowers, like those of R. maximum, are hidden by the 
shoots of the year which rise above them. Comparatively few seed- 
lings of R. carolinianum have ever been raised and apparently not much 
attention has been paid to selecting from the plants growing on the high 
Appalachian peaks individuals with flowers of unusual colors. It is 
perhaps the hardiest of all Rhododendrons; the habit is excellent, and 
the leaves are handsomer than those of the other hardy species. Im- 
provement in the color of the flower is all that is needed to make it a 
first-rate plant for this climate. Experiments with seedling plants of 
this species are certainly worth making. Rhododendron maximum is 
the most northern of the eastern North American Rhododendrons and 
is not rare in some parts of New England. In the valleys of the 
southern mountains it is sometimes a bushy tree up to forty feet in 
height, but in the north it is much smaller, and is distributed in iso- 
lated stations from Nova Scotia through New England and eastern 
New York to Pennsylvania; from Pennsylvania southward along the 
Appalachian Mountains it is very abundant at low altitudes, often cov- 
ering the slopes of narrow valleys with impenetrable thickets. The 
flowers are white or pale rose color and produced in rather compact 
clusters which as the flowers do not open until late in June or early 
in July are a good deal hidden by the branches of the year which rise 
above them. The long comparative narrow leaves sometimes a foot in 
length make this Rhododendron valuable in a climate in which few 
broad-leaved evergreen plants can be successfully grown. 
