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Rhododendron minus, better known perhaps as R. punctatum, is 
still little known in American gardens. It is a plant of the southern 
Appalachian Piedmont region, and ascends on the Blue Ridge of the 
Carolinas to an altitude of at least three thousand feet. The small, 
pale rose-colored flowers are produced in small clusters which, like 
those of R. maximum, are overtopped by the shoots of the year which 
begin to grow before the flower-buds open. This Rhododendron varies 
greatly in size, the largest plants growing at nearly the highest alti- 
tudes where individuals seven or eight feet high, and often forming 
thickets, are not uncommon. Less attractive perhaps than R. carolin- 
ianum, with which it grows on the southern mountains, R. minus is 
well worth a place in the gardens of a region in which so few species 
of Rhododendron can be successfully grown as in Massachusetts. In 
northern Georgia there is a form of this plant (var. Harhisonii) with 
larger leaves and larger flowers in larger clusters which may be ex- 
pected to make a handsome garden plant. It is not yet in cultivation. 
Two good dwarf garden plants are believed to have been obtained from 
Rhododendron minus. The first, R. arbutifolium, is a dense shrub 
spreading into broad masses, with branches occasionally four feet high, 
small, acute leaves, and small rose-purple flowers in small compact 
clusters. Its other parent is believed to be R. ferrugineum of the 
European Alps. R. arbutifolium is better known in gardens as R. Wil- 
sonii, a name which belongs to a hybrid between two Himalayan Rho- 
dodendrons. It is sometimes also cultivated under the names of R. daph- 
noides, R. Hammondii, and R. oleaefolium. The second of these 
plants, R. myrtifolium, is believed to be a hybrid between the other 
European alpine species, R. hirsutum and R. minus. It is a smaller 
and more upright growing plant than R. arbutifolium and has smaller 
and broader leaves and much handsomer rose-pink flowers also in com- 
pact clusters. 
Rhododendron (Azalea) arborescens. As the flowers of the yellow- 
flowered Appalachian Azalea (R. calendulaceum) begin to fade the first 
of those of Rhododendron arborescens open. This is a handsome plant, 
and the beauty of the pure white fragrant flowers is increased by the 
bright red color of the long filaments and style. This is also an Appa- 
lachian plant, and sometimes at an altitude of about five thousand 
feet covers with dense thickets only a few feet high and sometimes an 
acre in extent the treeless summits of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and 
in their sheltered valleys sometimes grows into great arborescent 
bushes twenty feet tall and so justifies its name. There are growing 
in Mr. H. H. Richardson's garden in Brookline plants of this Azalea 
obtained from the highlands of North Carolina with pale rose-colored 
flowers of extraordinary beauty. Probably this variety will not repro- 
duce itself from seeds and must therefore remain rare in gardens, for 
the propagation of Azaleas on a large scale by grafting is in this 
country a slow and expensive operation. 
Sambucus canadensis, the black-fruited Elderberry of northeastern 
North America, is the last of the Massachusetts shrubs to make a conspic- 
uous display of flowers. Few native shrubs make a greater show of 
flowers and fruits, and the numerous Elders sown by birds on the banks 
of the Bussey Brook in the valley north of Hemlock Hill, and by the 
