RHODODEN'DRON CAUCAS'ICUM. 
CAUCASIAN RHODODENDRON. 
Class. 
DECANDRIA. 
Order, 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
RHODORACE^. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Habit. 
Introduced 
Caucasus. 
18 inches. 
April, 
Shrub. 
in 1820. 
No. 947. 
Rhododendron; for the meaning of the name see 
No. 63. Caucasicum is given as a distinctive appel- 
lation, on account of the first plant of the species 
which was introduced to England having been dis- 
covered on Mount Caucasus. 
Our beautiful shrub was discovered inhabiting 
mountains which border on the region of perpetual 
snow ; deserted, it may be said, by almost every 
vegetable occupant of the lofty waste ; even the J u- 
niper, the very child of high places, shrinks from 
the inclemency of its attenuated atmosphere, and 
lodges at an altitude below. The Vaccinium myr- 
tillus and Vitis idaea being the only shrubby friends 
found to accompany, in this inhospitable region, 
the beautiful Rhododendron Caucasicum. 
Several varieties of this plant are now in cultiva- 
tion, and scarcely do any in the genus excel them 
in beauty. The original variety introduced was 
more strongly shaded with a bright rose-colour 
than the present one ; and others, of hybrid origin, 
possess more or less of the characteristic features of 
the parent. In our dense atmosphere it requires 
a sheltered habitation, in a peat bed. 
