this a distinct genus. They have all merged into 
Rhododendron, and not without much apparent oc- 
casion for the change. The original separation, by 
Linneus, of Azalea from Rhododendron, depended 
on the respective numbers of their stamens ; Rho- 
dodendron having ten ; whilst Azalea has five only. 
This discrepancy of inflorescence placed them in 
very different classes in his system — the one in pen- 
tandria, the other in decandria. These two genera 
have no other distinction that is worthy of notice. 
Instances, like this, in which kindred plants are widely 
separated in systematic arrangement; and opposite 
cases, in which heterogeneous subjects are joined 
under the same class, induced modern botanists to 
search the more assiduously for a foundation whereon 
to build a new arrangement, that should be more de- 
pendent on the physiological structure and natural 
affinities of vegetables. 
Linneus, notwithstanding he had employed a great 
portion of his life in the completion of his artificial 
system, was desirous of arriving at a better. In a 
letter to his friend Haller, in reply to an observation 
unfavourable to this classification, he says “ Far be 
it from me ever to uphold artificial arrangements, as 
if they were in any measure comparable to natural 
ones. I wish we knew more about natural classes.” 
Indeed, he left what he called fragments of a natural 
order ; but it is not surprising that in the infancy of 
the science, as it then existed, he could not develope 
any natural arrangement satisfactory to his own 
comprehensive mind. 
Azalea nudiflora requires the usual treatment of 
such plants. Peat is indispensable to their success. 
Hort. Kew. 2, v. 1, 319. 
