April SI, 1987. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
303 
21 
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Linnean Society at 8 r.sr. 
22 
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SB 
s 
21 
SUN 
2nd Sunday after Easter. 
3 > 
M 
2d 
Tu 
Uoval Horticultural Society. Fruit and Floral Committees at 11 A.M 
27 
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[National Auricula Society’s Show 
AZALEAS. 
13E cultivation of Azaleas to. meet the exten¬ 
sive annual demand for them in this and 
other countries has become an important 
horticultural industry in Belgium, and per¬ 
haps can only be ranked second to the bulb 
farming of Holland in numbers and value. 
We are familiar here with the usefulness of 
these plants for decorative purposes, and 
visitors to the large metropolitan or provincial nurseries 
have also some idea respecting the numbers required to 
supply British gardens. A journey to the nurseries at 
Ghent, however, any time during the summer or early 
autumn, when Azaleas in various stages of growth can be 
seen by acres, will convey a very different impression, 
and after visiting a few of the establishments where these 
plants are made a specialty the feeling becomes one of 
astonishment as to what can be done with such multitudes 
of plants. There are hundreds of thousands, and probably 
collectively they might be numbered by millions, not all 
of saleable size, but from those grafted in the current 
year through all the grades of three, four, or five year old 
plants up to gigantic specimens that when seen in the 
spring are massive standards or cones of brilliant flowers. 
From such a visit may be gained an adequate idea of the 
popularity of Azaleas and their importance from a com¬ 
mercial point of view; with their beauty and usefulness 
all gardeners are acquainted. 
The advance of Azaleas in the favour of cultivators 
cannot be described as having been rapid, but it has been 
continuous and less subject to the changes of popularity 
extended to plants which have at times evoked a greater 
enthusiasm. More than a century ago Kiempfer and 
Thunberg made known to botanists the existence in Japan 
and China of the beautiful Azalea indica, which had been 
cultivated there in gardens for many years and was 
represented by numerous varieties, twenty-one being 
enumerated by Ksempfer. These were described in 
glowing terms, but a considerable period elapsed before 
plants were introduced, and it is probable that the first 
were obtained on the Continent, the earliest recorded in 
this country having been received during the first decade 
of the nineteenth century. Mr. W. Anderson, curator of 
the Chelsea Botanic Garden, obtained a plant in August, 
1810, from China, the only one of several that were sent 
in the same ship, all the others having died on the voyage, 
the passage being greatly prolonged owing to the stormy 
weather experienced when rounding the Cape of Good 
Hope, an example of the difficulty attending the intro¬ 
duction of plants when only sailing vessels were at com¬ 
mand Mr. Anderson appears to have been successful 
in tire culture and propagation of this plant, as several 
No. 3oG.—Y ol. XIV., Tiivkd Series. 
years later he described his practice in the Transactions 
of the London Horticultural Society. Then and for a 
long time afterwards, however, Azalea indica was only 
increased by layers, a method also employed for some 
years in raising stocks when grafting was adopted. Ac¬ 
cording to the second edition of Aiton’s “ Hortus Kew- 
ensis,” the first plants were introduced by the Directors 
of the East India Company two years before this, but I 
have found no other mention of the circumstance. 
Plants increased in numbers but slowly, and writing in 
1812 Dr. John Sims in describing the first one figured in 
the “Botanical Magazine,” plate 1480, said:—“This is 
a very rare plant which has been anxiously sought for by 
cultivators of curious and scarce exotics. We believe 
there are not above three or four individuals of it in the 
country, and of these only the one in the collection 
of James Vere, Esq., from which our drawing was taken, 
has as yet flowered.” The gardener to the gentleman 
named, who resided at Kensington Gore, Mr. D. Blake, 
grew the plant very successfully, and was one of the first 
who forced the Azalea, for on February 16th, 1819, a 
specimen was exhibited at one of the London Horticul¬ 
tural Society’s meetings “ upwards of G feet high and in 
full bloom.” The variety figured had one medium sized 
single deep red flower, giving a very poor idea of the attrac¬ 
tions that were to be afterwards developed. 
In 1819 two other varieties were introduced from 
China by Barr & Brookes, nurserymen at Balls Pond, 
through his collector Mr. Poole, one known as purpurea 
plena, the other as indica alba, both considered valuable 
additions at that time, and which may be still found in 
some collections. The variety purpurea plena is very 
distinct, and in colour is still unique, though the shape 
of the flower would not satisfy a modern florist. It has 
something of the hose-in-liose or rosette character, the 
outer petals being narrow, oblong, and spreading, the 
inner much smaller and less distinct. The colour is a 
peculiar but rather pleasing purplish mauve. The old 
single white, indica alba, had good sized pure white 
flowers, was profuse flowering, and even now is not de¬ 
spised in some old gai'dens. In the following ten years 
several other forms were introduced, some being described 
as species, but nil closely allied to A. indica, such as 
aurantiaca in 1822, phoenicea and variegata in 1824; 
lateritia was introduced about the same time by a Mr. 
McKelligan, and in 1830 Danielsiana, with others, was 
brought over by Capt. Daniels to Mr. Tate of Sloane 
Street, Chelsea. 
The attention of some cultivators both in England and 
on the Continent was soon directed to the improvement 
of the Azalea by crossing or hybridising, and as those 
obtained differed considerably in colours, it was speedily 
found that crosses could be readily secured. One of the 
earliest was Azalea pulchra, or Rhododendron pulchrum 
as it was named by some authors, which was raised about 
1830 by Mr. Smith, gardener to Lord Liverpool at Coombe 
Wood, Kingston-on-Thames, between A. ledifolia and 
A. indica. This was something like a single form of 
purpurea plena, with mauve-coloured flowers and narrow 
petals, and could scarcely be considered as an improve¬ 
ment upon those already in cultivation. Azalea Rawsoni, 
however, obtained shortly afterwards by Mr. Menzios, 
gardener to Christopher Rawson, Esq., Hope House, 
Halifax, was an excellent addition to the list. It was said 
to have been obtained from a cross between A. phoenicea 
and Rhododendron dauricum atrovirens, but no exact 
account appears to have been kept, and there is some 
NO. 2012.— Yoe. LXXVL, Old Series. 
