Ct)c Eijotiolienliron ^ocietp 
MONREITH, WIGTOWNSHIRE. 
Contributed by The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart. 
The climate of this district is very favourable for rhododendrons, the land 
being intersected by the sea in several directions, and the soil is suitable, generally 
light loam, with plenty of peat and sand available. The chief adverse con¬ 
ditions are violent winds and late spring frosts. Against the former we marshal 
such defences as we may ; against the latter no precautions avail. 
The season of 1916 has been very propitious for growth. The spring, though 
cold and backward, was completely free from frost later than 28th March. On 
that date the blooms of Rh. barbatum, arboreum, pr.ecox and Nobleanum 
were destroyed, but no damage was done to the young growth of these or any 
other species. It was very different in 1915, when a May frost blackened the 
young shoots of these and other species. 
Of Wilson’s Chinese seedlings we have as yet only flowered the following 
species here :— 
Rh. pachytrichum, opened on 1st March, pretty truss of rosy blossoms, 
foliage poor. 
Rh. Davidsonianum, opened 10th May, will probably be attractive when 
larger. 
Rh. lutescens, of indifferent merit, without promise of the ornamental 
bark of Rh. Triflorum. 
Rh. Augustini, quite pretty, promising well when it increases in size, but the 
flowers appear only two or three together, not in a truss. Said to be variable in 
colour ; ours was a lively rose-lilac. 
Rh. intricatum, flowers small, but numerous, and attractive from their 
violet colour. 
Rh. ambiguum, not desirable, corolla washy yellow. 
Rh. micranthum, opened on 10th July. Flowers white in small globular 
trusses, individually insignificant, but so abundant as to make this a desirable 
shrub, blooming when other rhododendrons are over, except the American Rh. 
maximum and viscosum. 
The following experience seems worthy of note. Hitherto, we have reckoned 
among the many virtues of the genus Rhododendron that all species were immune 
from attack by hares and rabbits. Having grown Rh. pr^cox for many years 
in ground fenced against these rodents, in the autumn of 1915, we planted half a 
dozen fine young bushes, three feet high, in a woodland opening. Hares are by 
no means numerous ; the farmers take care that they should not be so ; but such 
as there were in that wood made hearty suppers off pr^cox. That hares were 
the marauders, not rabbits, was evident from the height at which the foliage had 
been devoured ; nor was it the work of roedeer, for the browsing was from the 
bottom upwards, the extreme tops being left untouched. 
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