196 
THE RHODODENDRON. 
supply of water, when it is seldom they fail to “ set for bloom” 
at every jmint. This check, however, must not be given till the 
young wood is fully developed to its entire length, or the heads 
of flowers will be small and unsatisfactory. 
It is by no means an unusual occurrence for the plants to 
start into the dreaded second growth, when, unless they are 
timely stayed, the production of flowers will be prevented for an 
entire season. When this happens, they should be kept in with 
a very short allowance of water till about two joints of the new 
wood is visible, when it is advisable to remove them to an ex¬ 
posed spot in the open air, that time may be secured to mature this 
and form the bloom-buds. By the end of August these buds 
will be swelled to a considerable size, and their future manage¬ 
ment resolves itself into merely keeping them moderately moist 
and the supply of plenty of air, which is best afforded at this 
season by placing the plants within the shade of a north wall, the 
direct action of the sun for a lengthened period having a ten¬ 
dency to disfigure the foliage. In such a position they may re¬ 
main till it becomes necessary to remove them into their winter 
quarters, where they should still receive plenty of air and 
light. 
Rhododendrons are very suitable and handsome objects for 
forcing. For this purpose the common kinds are usually em¬ 
ployed, and it is only necessary to select in the autumn such 
plants as have been potted at least a twelvemonth, and are well 
furnished with bloom-buds, and introduce them gradually to heat 
as early as may be convenient. The object in having them potted 
in the previous season is to hasten the development of the flowers, 
for those which are taken from the ground in the same season, 
though they bloom as well, are much longer about it. Plants 
that have been once or twice forced, and are carefully tended in 
the maturing of their wood, beget a habit of early flowering, which 
materially assists the operation in future years. 
The subject inducing the present paper is a hybrid, obtained 
by impregnation of R. arboreum on one of the hardier kinds, 
R. ponticum, if we remember rightly. The plant partakes largely 
of the character of its male parent in its manner of growing, and 
the flowers retain much of the splendid colour which distinguishes 
that species, while their production is retarded till even later 
