34 
Plants of the native Rhododendron maximum collected in the middle 
and southern states nave been planted in recent years in considerable 
numbers in this part of the country, but the Rhododendrons chiefly 
used in the gardens of eastern North America are hybrids of R. cataw- 
biense of the high slopes and summits of the southern Appalachian 
Mountains. Names have been given to a large number of plants made 
originally by crossing this species with the Himalayan R. arboreum and 
other Indian species, with the Caucasian R, ponticum and with R. max- 
imum, and by raising seedlings from these hybrids. Most of these 
hybrids and their offspring have been raised in England; several good 
varieties have originated in Germany and Belgium, and a few have 
been produced in the United States many years ago chiefly in the Par- 
sons Nursery in Flushing, Long Island. The best of these hybrids for 
this country have been made in England but only a comparatively small 
number of them are hardy, the hardiest being those in which the cataw- 
biense and maximum blood predominate. Rhododendron ponticum, a 
tender species, has been used almost exclusively for the stock on which 
these hybrids have been grafted, and the tenderness of the stock has 
evidently affected the constitution of the graft; and it is this stock 
which may cause the death without other apparent causes of plants 
which have flourished in this country for thirty or forty years. R. pon- 
ticum is favored by nurserymen because the plants are quickly and 
cheaply raised and easily worked, but for really hardy and reliable 
Rhododendron hybrids for this country R. catawbiense, although more 
difficult to work, should be used for stock. Even better than any 
grafted plants are those obtained from layers, a slower and more ex- 
pensive process, formerly much practiced in the Kanphill Nurseries 
by Anthony Waterer who raised the best Catawbiense Hybrids which 
have been planted in New England. A few of the hardiest and hand- 
somest of these plants which can be grown in this climate are Atro- 
sanguineum, Charles Dickens, Mrs. C. S. Sargent, Henrietta Sargent, 
Catawbiense album. Album elegans, Roseum elegans, Hannibal, H. W. 
Sargent, Discolor, Melton, Album grandiflorum, Purpureum grandiflo- 
rum, Purpureum elegans and Lady Armstrong. 
The hardiest Rhododendrons in this climate are R. maximum and R. 
catawbiense; the former, which in the valleys of the southern moun- 
tains is sometimes a bushy tree up to forty feet in height, but at the 
north is much smaller, is distributed in isolated stations from Nova 
Scotia through New England and eastern New York to Pennsyl- 
vania; from Pennsylvania southward along the Appalachian Mountains 
it is very abundant at low altitudes, often covering the slopes of nar- 
row valleys with almost impenetrable thickets. The flowers are white 
or pale rose color, and are 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 well above 
them. The long comparatively narrow leaves up to a foot in length 
make this Rhododendron valuable in a climate in which few broad- 
leaved evergreen plants can be successfully grown. R. catawbiense is 
a round-topped, rather compact shrub with broad, dark green and lus- 
trous leaves. It is very hardy but grows slower than many of its hy- 
brids, and is handsomest before the flowers open or after they have 
