34 
and R. maximum which was raised by Anthony Waterer and has been 
in this country since 1871; it has proved to be one of the best of the 
large-growing Rhododendrons ever cultivated here. It is a large, 
round-topped shrub with narrow pointed leaves and flowers the color of 
apple blossoms; it blooms about a week later than the Catawbiense 
Hybrids and the flowers have just opened. 
Rhododendron Watereri is an interesting hybrid raised by Anthony 
Waterer and was sent to the Arboretum in 1908 without a name and 
has been named here for him. It was obtained by crossing R. Metter- 
nichii wuth one of his Catawbiense Hybrids and has proved perfectly 
hardy in the Arboretum where there are four fine plants. The young 
shoots of this plant are clothed with gray to gray-brown floccose to- 
mentum, early becoming glabrous; the leaves when young are covered 
with short, curled hairs and on the under side with a short, dun-colored 
felt, later becoming glabrescent. It has pale to deep rose-pink flowers. 
The habit of the plant and the character of the young shoots and 
leaves strongly suggest R. Metternichii, while the broader leaf-base 
and glabrescent foliage recall R. catawbiense. The flower-truss is com- 
pact and rounded, and the flowers although not large are numerous and 
of pleasing shades of pink. It has proved perfectly hardy and of vig- 
orous habit, and promises to be a useful plant for New England. The 
presence of a felt of hairs on the under side of the leaves is a decided 
advantage to any Rhododendron in New England since it protects it from 
the lace-wing fly which attacks most of these plants. Rhododendron 
Metternichii is a shrub from three to twelve feet high with numerous 
stout branches, oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate leaves, wide, rounded, 
obtuse or short-cuspidate, narrowed or rarely rounded at the base and 
dark, lustrous, green and glabrous on the upper surface and densely 
clothed with floccose to crustaceous gray to rufous-colored tomentum 
below. The flowers are pink, in loose umbellate corymbs, on slender 
pedicels with a seven-lobed corolla, from ten to fourteen stamens shorter 
than the corolla and puberulous to pubescent filaments below the middle 
and shorter than the pistil. This is the common evergreen Rhododen- 
dron of Japan and is not known to grow wild outside of that country, 
and does not extend into the northern island of Hokkaido or into north- 
ern Hondo. In the Nikko region, on Mt. Fuji and the mountains of 
Shinano, it is particularly abundant at altitudes of between 3000 and 
7000 feet, and from the middle of May to the end of June, according 
to altitude, is one of the floral features of the forest. It is hardy in 
the Arboretum but grows slowly. 
Kalmia latifolia, the Mountain Laurel, at the northern base of Hem- 
lock Hill, will be in bloom shortly after this number of the Bulletin 
reaches its Massachusetts readers. All the plants are not as full of 
flower-buds as they were last year, but the flowering of the Laurel is 
the last of the great flower shows of the year in the .Arboretum; none of 
those which precede it is more beautiful. The Mountain Laurel, or 
Calico Bush as it is often called, is one of the most beautiful of all 
North American shrubs or small trees. Many of the Rhododendrons 
have larger leaves and larger and more brilliantly colored flowers, but 
of all the broad-leaved evergreen plants which can be grown success- 
