AZALEA NUDIFLORA. 
NAKED-FLOWERED AZALEA. 
Class. Order. 
PENTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order . 
RHODORACEJE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Habit. 
Introduced 
N. America. 
3 feet. 
May, June. 
Shrub. 
in 1734. 
No. 541. 
This name, deduced from the Greek azaleos, dry, 
was applied by the ancients, it may be presumed, 
to some inhabitant of arid situations. Linneus 
called this species nudiflora, from the nakedness 
of the shrub, when flowering; it being, at that pe- 
riod, almost devoid of foliage. This variety is gen- 
erally distinguished by the name carnea. 
Of the species, nudiflora, there are not less than 
fifty named varieties, many of them possessing very 
distinct differences, independently of the colour of 
their flowers. There are, indeed, very few shrubs 
which exhibit the variety of character shown by 
seedlings of the Azalea nudiflora; and the facility 
with which it hybridizes with other species, will ex- 
tend its anomalies, and be productive of not a little 
confusion in the genus. Amongst them may be found 
double and semidouble, as well as single, flowers ; 
and all shades of colour between cl ear white and deep 
red; besides striped, variegated, and purple. 
It should not be omitted to be noticed that the 
genus Azalea is, by some authors, almost deprived 
of an existence amongst the living tribes of plants. 
Procumbens is the only species left to constitute 
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