Fill soft and deep, O winter snow!
The sweet azalea's oaken dells,
And hide the bank where roses blow,
And swing the azure bells!
--_Whittier._
The azalea is a genus of plants belonging to the natural order _Ericeæ_
and to the sub-order _Rhodoreæ_ named in allusion to the dry places
in which many of the species grow, and consists of upright shrubs
with large, handsome, fragrant flowers, often cultivated in gardens.
The genus comprises more than a hundred species, most of them natives
of China or North America, having profuse clusters of white, orange,
purple, or variegated flowers, some of which have long been the pride
of the gardens of Europe. The general characteristics of the genus
are a five-parted calyx, a five-lobed funnel-form, slightly irregular
corolla, five stamens, a five-celled pod, alternate, oblong, entire,
and ciliated leaves, furnished with a glandular point. Most of the
species differ from the rhododendrons in having thin, deciduous
leaves. Some botanists unite the genus azalea to rhododendron. North
America abounds in azaleas as well as in rhododendrons, and some of
the species have long been cultivated, particularly _A. nudiflora_
and _A. viscosa_, which have become the parents of many hybrids. Both
species abound from Canada to the southern parts of the United States.
_A. calendulcea_, a native of the South, is described as frequently
clothing the mountains with a robe of living scarlet. All the American
species are deciduous. In cultivation the azaleas love the shade and
a soil of sandy peat or loam. Works on horticulture give specific and
elaborate direction for the cultivation of the various species.
C. C. M.
[Illustration: AZALEA.
COPYRIGHT 1899,
DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO., NEW YORK.]