46 
dendron Wellsianum, another hybrid of the same parentage or per- 
haps a seedling with nearly white flowers opening from pale rose-col- 
ored buds, and marked by a conspicuous yellow blotch on the upper 
lobe of the corolla, is a handsome plant which was raised by Anthony 
Waterer at the Knaphill Nurseries; it has not always proved perfectly 
hardy, although this year it has bloomed well and rather later than 
R. delicatissimum. Hybrids of R. maximum with hybrids of R. cataw- 
biense raised at Holm Lea by Charles Sander have handsome rose or 
rose pink flowers, but have often lost their flower-buds in severe winters. 
Rhododendron minus, better known perhaps as R. punctatum, which 
has flowered unusually well this year, 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 over- 
topped by the shoots of the year which begin to grow before the flow- 
er-buds open. This Rhododendron varies greatly in size, the largest 
plants growing at nearly the highest altitudes where individuals seven 
or eight feet high, and often forming in thickets, are not uncommon. 
Less attractive perhaps than R. carolinianum, 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 success- 
fully 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 expected to make a handsome garden 
plant. It is not yet in cultivation. 
Zenobia pulverulenta is flowering unusually early this year. A native 
of the coast of North Carolina, where it grows along the borders of 
swamps, this plant, which is one of the most beautiful shrubs of the 
American flora, is perfectly hardy in Massachusetts where it has flow- 
ered in the Arboretum for many years. Zenobia is related to the An- 
dromedas and is chiefly distinguished by its open campanulate flowers 
and four-awned anthers. The leaves are deciduous, thickly covered with 
a glaucous bloom, and the ivory white flowers, which are about half 
an inch long and broad, are borne on slender arching stems and are 
arranged in axillary clusters forming terminal racemes from twelve to 
eighteen inches in length and arching from the upper part of the branches 
of the previous year. The form of Zenobia (var. nitida) with green 
leaves, that is destitute of the glaucous bloom, is a more common plant 
in North Carolina and is equally hardy in the Arboretum. Zenobia is 
occasionally seen in English gardens. Is there an American nursery 
in which this beautiful plant can be found? 
Pieris (Lyonia) mariana is another late flowering Andromeda-like plant 
of the coast region of the eastern states from Rhode Island southward 
to Florida and Texas. Not as handsome as Zenobia, with green leaves 
and smaller white flowers in shorter erect clusters, this Pieris is well 
worth a place in the garden where it is not particular about soil and 
grows nearly as well in dry gravelly sand as in rich loam. It is one 
of the common plants on the sandy plains of Long Island. 
