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RHODODENDRON. 
are numerous, and have a lightish brown bark ; 
its leaves are plentiful, irregular, and sessile, 
and have an ovate-lanceolate outline, and are 
clothed on their edges and under-surface with 
ferruginous hairs; and its flowers are similar in 
inflorescence and form to those of the preceding 
species, and have a light red or scarlet colour, 
and make a showy appearance, and bloom from 
May till July. A variety of it has variegated 
leaves. - 
The Daurian rhododendron, Ff. dauricum, is a 
native of Siberia and Chinese Tartary, and was in- 
troduced to Britain in 1780. It grows in such pro- 
fusion and so densely in many of the pine forests 
of the subalpine districts of central Asia as to 
make whole tracts appear one sheet of blossom. 
It differs from almost all the other species, both 
| in being deciduous, and in blooming at an early 
period in spring. It has commonly a height of 
about 3 or 4 feet, and is cultivated both in the 
greenhouse and in the open ground. Its branches 
are numerous, and have a brown bark; its leaves 
come out without order on short footstalks, and 
are broad, naked, smooth, and comparatively 
small; and its flowers are wheel-shaped and 
large, and have a beautiful rose colour, and bloom 
| from February or March till May. Its leaves 
are sometimes used as a substitute for the leaves 
of the tea-plants. One variety of it has pale 
green leaves, eventually changing to a brownish 
tint ; and another has dark green or sooty green 
leaves and purple flowers. 
The largest rhododendron, or American moun- 
tain laurel, R. maximum, is a native of Virginia, 
and was introduced to Britain in 1736. It has 
commonly a height of from 6 to 24 feet. Its 
branches are few and irregular; its leaves come 
out irregularly on short footstalks, and are large, 
ovate-lanceolate, and acutely reflexed, and have 
a shining strong green colour, and present some 
resemblance to the leaves of the common laurel ; 
its flower-buds form at the ends of the branches, 
and begin to swell early in autumn, and look 
turgid and imposing throughout the winter ; 
and its flowers come out in roundish bunches, 
and are very showy and splendid, and have a 
pale blush colour within and a peach colour with- 
out, and gradually fade’ away through a series 
of whitening tints, as they grow old, and bloom 
from June till August. One variety of it has 
white flowers; and another variety, or a hybrid, 
has white and purple flowers. 
The Pontic rhododendron, &. ponticum, is a 
native of the Hast, and of moist shady places 
near Gibraltar, and was introduced to Britain in 
1763. It has commonly a height of from 4 to 
15 feet. Its branches deflect without order from 
the sides of the stem; its leaves stand on short 
footstalks, and are spear-shaped, acute, and glossy 
on both surfaces; and its flowers come out in clus- 
ters from the ends of the branches, and are bell- 
shaped and of a fine purple colour, and bloom 
from May till July. The varieties of this species, 
47 
which occur in gardens and nurseries, are very 
numerous,—a few of them imported from Gib- 
raltar, Armenia, and Nepaul, but most raised 
from seeds or by hybridizement in Britain ; and 
some of the oldest or most remarkable are the 
white - flowered, the blue- flowered, the rose- 
flowered, the twisted-petalled, the rubescent, the 
great-flowered, the double-flowered, the obtuse- 
leaved, the narrow-leaved, the ovate-leaved, the 
long-leaved, the silver-leaved, the golden-leaved, 
the marginate-leaved, the myrtle-leaved, the wil- 
low-leaved, the cassine-leaved, the kalmia-leaved, 
the showy, the beautiful, the azalea-like, and 
the intermediate. 
Some of the most brilliant of the other spe- 
cies are 2. catawbiense, introduced from North 
America in 1809, from 3 to 6 feet high, car- 
rying purple flowers from June till August, 
and comprising varieties of very different co- 
lours; &. arboreum, introduced from Nepaul in 
1820, from 6 to 25 feet high, carrying scar- 
let flowers in April and May, and comprising 
many varieties of widely different colours; &. 
punctatum, introduced from North America in 
1786, from 3 to 8 feet high, carrying pink 
flowers from June till August, and chiefly dis- 
tinguished by its dotted leaves; A. caucaszcum, 
introduced from Caucasus in 1803, from 1 to 3 
feet high, carrying purple flowers in August, and 
comprising varieties with rose-coloured, deep red, 
and straw-coloured flowers; &. catesbe, intro- 
duced from North America in 1810, from 3 to 6 
feet high, carrying purple flowers in May and 
June, and comprising red and rosy flowered 
varieties; and &. Farrere, introduced from China 
in 1829, about 3 or 4 feet high, and carrying 
lilac flowers in February and March. The hy- 
brids which cannot properly be referred to any 
one species are almost numberless, and, in many 
instances, rival or excel the finest normal plants 
or natural varieties in beauty and brilliance. 
The rhododendron is often planted among col- 
lections of American shrubs, or what are called 
American gardens, as if it were exclusively or 
characteristically American; but it figures well 
and rightfully on all sorts of dressed grounds, 
and in all kinds of choice shrubberies, and is 
alike suited to the front of a border, to the ex- 
panse of a lawn, to the side of a walk, to unique 
groups, and to mixed clumps. It prefers a soil of 
sandy peat, but will thrive amid either a prepon- 
derance of sand or an excess of mould. Its power 
of pleasing resides in the combined effect of habit, 
foliage, and bloom,—and is so great in the first 
and the second, irrespectively of the third, as to 
render it everywhere mighty and beautiful as a 
mere evergreen; yet both its chief diversity 
within itself, and its main fascinations during 
the period of bloom, exist.in the varied colours and 
tints and forms and aggregations of its gorgeous 
flowers. ‘The narrow and rather mean-looking 
leaves of some of the ordinary varieties look poor 
by the side of the Catawbiense, which is oval and 
