[433]
[Illustration: Nº. 433]
Azalea Pontica. Yellow Azalea.
_Class and Order._
Pentandria Monogynia.
_Generic Character._
_Cor._ campanulata. _Stamina_ receptaculo inserta. _Caps._ 2-5
locularis polysperma.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._
AZALEA _pontica_ foliis nitidis lanceolatis, utrinque glabris,
racemis terminalibus. _Linn. Sp. Pl. App. p. 1669._ _Pall. Fl.
Ross. t. 69. p. 51._
CHAMÆRHODENDROS Pontica maxima Mespili folio flore luteo. _Tourn.
Cor. Hist. Rei. Herb. 42._ _Act. Paris 1704. p. 348._ _Buxb. Cent.
5. p. 36. t. 69._
Descr. Shrub from two to three feet or more in height, the thickest part
of the stem not exceeding the size of the little finger, covered with a
smooth brown bark, irregularly branched; Flowers appearing before the
leaves are fully expanded, and produced in umbels at the extremities of
the branches, from eight to twelve or more in an umbel, of a fine yellow
colour and agreeable fragrance; each blossom is about the size of that
of the horse-chestnut, and as some of them are produced much earlier
than others, the plant of course continues a considerable time in bloom,
standing on short peduncles; Calyx very short, viscous, and irregularly
divided, most commonly into five ovato-lanceolate segments; Corolla,
tube cylindrical, viscous, grooved, brim divided into five segments,
undulated and somewhat wrinkled, ovate, pointed, three turning upwards,
two downwards, of the three uppermost segments the middle one more
intensely yellow than the others and inclining to orange, with which it
is sometimes spotted; Stamina usually five, yellow, projecting beyond
the corolla, and turning upwards near their extremities; Antheræ
orange-coloured; Pollen whitish and thready; Germen somewhat conical,
evidently hairy, and somewhat angular; Style yellowish, filiform,
projecting beyond the stamina, and turning upwards; Stigma forming a
round green head.
The figure and description here given were taken from a plant which
flowered by means of artificial heat, in the spring of 1798, at Mr.
Watson's, Nurseryman, Islington, and which had been introduced the same
year, by Mr. Anthony Hove, of Warsaw.
As an hardy ornamental shrub, it bids fair to prove an acquisition truly
valuable, its flowers produced in the months of June and July, being
highly ornamental as well as fragrant.
We have the best authority for regarding this plant as the
_Chamærhodendros Pontica_ of Tournefort, it agrees with his own
specimens in Sir Joseph Banks's Herbarium, it accords also with his
description, and figures, more especially of those flowers which are of
their natural size; nor have we any doubts of its being the _Azalea
Pontica_ of Prof. Pallas, figured in the _Flor. Rossica_, since it
corresponds generally with his description, though not in all points
with his figure, which bears evident marks of inaccuracy, the stigma,
for instance, is represented as trifid.
Tournefort found this plant on the eastern side of the Black Sea, Mr.
Hove on the north side near Oczakow, and elsewhere; Professor Pallas on
Mount Caucasus.
As yet there has been no opportunity of ascertaining the best means of
propagating this new denizen, but there is every reason to suppose that
it will succeed with the treatment bestowed on the other _Azalea's_.
Prof. Pallas relates that the honey of bees frequenting the flowers of
this plant is supposed to be narcotic, and that goats, kine, and sheep
on eating its leaves have been poisoned thereby.
By permission and with the approbation of Mr. Anthony Hove, the
following extracts from his journal are here inserted.
"June 9, 1796, found a few of this species of _Azalea_ on the river
Dnieper in swampy ground, four feet high, beginning to blow, called here
the stupifying shrub, and considered by some as highly efficacious in
curing the venereal disease.
"June 20, found this species on the river Dniester, on the estate of
Count Stanislaus Sczesny Potocki, about sixteen English miles from the
town of Mohilow, in peat earth, from four to twenty feet high; regarded
by the common people as intoxicating, and used in the cure of various
diseases.
"July 4, near Oczakow, found thousands of these plants fully blown, in a
marsh, every spring-tide overflown by the sea; found there also, a
Tartarian farmer, who lived entirely by the profits arising from the
honey which the bees extracted from the flowers of this plant, sold to
Constantinople and other parts of Turkey for medicinal uses.
"July 15, arrived at Trebizond, found a valley about ten English miles
from the sea covered with these plants."
On cultivation, Mr. Hove relates that he found the _Azalea's_ from
Trebizond much more tender than those from the borders of the Dnieper
and the Dniester, and was therefore inclined to regard them as strong
varieties if not distinct species.
The leaves, when fully expanded, are in size and figure like those on
the plate, hairy on both sides, and terminating in a very remarkable
blunt mucro or point, which has not been noticed either by those who
have described or figured the plant as it deserves, for it appears to
form a very strong character.
[434]
[Illustration: Nº. 434]
Oxybaphus Viscosus. Viscid Umbrella-Wort.
_Class and Order._
Triandria Monogynia.
_Generic Character._
_Cal._ 5-fidus campanulatus. _Cor._ infundibuliformis. _Nux_ 5-gona
1-sperma calyce explanato persistenti circumdata.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._