At Gainesville I took the opportunity to check native azaleas in the herbarium of the University of Florida and also to spend several instructive hours with Dr. H. H. Hume in search of azaleas and hollies of the area before again following R. canescens northwest. Apparently skipping the coastal counties of Lafayette, Taylor, etc; it reappeared in fine quantity on the banks of the Suwannee River near White Springs, where on a warn day it was being worked by honey bees, bumble bees and butterflies. It reappeared very conspicuously with dogwood on crossing the Fall Line in Madison County and it became evident that southward occurrences in this region are only, in fact, in very localized pockets, often widely separated. Still travelling west, this azalea reached perhaps a peak in quantity on the banks of the Yellow River in Okaloosa County where bushes became small trees of 15 ft. or more with heavy, branching trunks. It reached a second peak across the Sabine River in east Texas where the flowers seemed somewhat larger, their tubes longer and the leaves less hairy than in Florida and Georgia. Pure white forms and deep purple-red ones, those with large flowers and small ones with yellow blotches or with delightful scent — all were found during the next six weeks which eventually revealed a distribution of this species from the South Carolina coast around the Gulf to the Trinity River in Texas and north across Arkansas and Mississippi to southern Tennessee and southern North Carolina. It clearly covers an enormous area whose only major gaps are the neutral soils of the Mississippi Valley, the Red Hills of Mississippi and Alabama and a few regions not generally suited to ericaceous plants.

A YELLOW AZALEA

The first westward trip with R. canescens brought my introduction to the yellow Florida Azalea, R. austrinum, on March 26th near Geneva, Alabama, and in enormous quantity a few hours later along a woodland edge just south of the Florida-Alabama border. Apart from flower color, the general characters of this azalea are rather similar to those of R. canescens but it is more glandular. The little glistening red, pin-head glands cover pedicels and often vegetative shoots, as well as flower tubes. The flower may be wholly a clear, golden yellow or, more often, the petals may be yellow and tubes a variable strawberry red, giving one the impression that this red tube belongs more properly with R. canescens and has perhaps been acquired by R. austrinum after flowering at the same time along the same streamsides and producing a proportion of those unmistakably anemic buff-colored hybrids for many years past. As the banks of the Yellow River grow luxuriant R. canescens so elsewhere they are appropriately covered with masses of the yellow "Florida" Azalea which was subsequently found to occupy a sizeable portion of wester n Florida, southeast Mississippi, southern Alabama, and southwest Georgia — about as much territory outside of Florida as in.

Later collections of R. austrinum were made on the return from Texas on a more northerly swing. Spring was advancing and R. canescens was in collecting condition as far east as Georgia's Altamaha River where it occurs in masses of rich pinks almost across from Old Fort Barrington and the former haunts of the long-lost Franklinia.

AND SOME VARIATIONS

Several curiosities had shown up: we had seen pure white canescens but in southern Alabama there were whites and pale pinks with yellow blotches and with the lemon scent of R. alabamense, yet they could not be identified as this species. At one point a woodland glade was surrounded by a bizarre display in yellow, orange, white-pink, salmon and every intermediate color one might name. Several of these plants were sent back, earmarked as progeny from an apparent triple union between R. canescens, austrinum, and alabamense. On a quick return across central Georgia and Alabama a curious break in R. canescens was found on the hills of northwest Alabama and across into Mississippi in which the flowers were somewhat smaller, of uniform color (lacking the red tube) and were often yellow blotched and scented. Through later collections, this variable assortment, typical of nothing in particular, was traced as far north as Cumberland County on Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau. Obviously they had points in common with the hybrid swarms above, but they are widespread, much older and almost certainly contain a dash of R. nudiflorum rather than the austrinum of the last mentioned mixture.

Rains had been heavy during the course of a too early search for R. alabamense proper and it was a mud covered Chevrolet that approached Atlanta, Georgia on the 20th of April to collect mail, replenish supplies and permit a brief pause for scheduled meetings with Jesse C. Nicholls, the azalea-conscious salamander purveyor of Murphy, North Carolina and with W. P. Lemmon of nearby Marietta, student of southern azaleas and authority for three recently described species.

THE RED AZALEA OF GEORGIA

A few miles southwest of Atlanta our attention was momentarily caught by a splash of brilliant orange in a woodlot not far from the road. Brakes were promptly applied and subsequent investigation revealed an assortment of plants, 2—3 ft. high, in oranges, orange-reds, salmons and strong pinks. Unlike our collections to this point, these flowers were distinct in being almost totally devoid of pin-head glands, just as the leaves seemed nearly hairless on their undersides. Only one Georgia azalea fits a description of this sort and that is "red-flowered" R. speciosum, the Oconee Azalea, which during the next day or so was pursued from here to north of Atlanta, across central Georgia to Augusta, and down the Savannah River to Clyo in the vicinity of its original place of discovery by Andre Michaux at Two Sisters Ferry. Not particular as to habitats in central Georgia, the Oconee Azalea is a rather confused species in this region. One can guess that it has been on too familiar terms with aggressive R. canescens for some time — with results becoming evident through individuals with large, salmon or strong pink flowers, with small red flowers with orange blotches or with variability in their possession of pin-head glands or leaf tomentum. Such variants thrive on level ground in warm, sunny places. On the Savannah River a more uniform Oconee Azalea remains an inhabitant of the fairly shady red clay bluffs of the west bank where specimens may be found in excellent deep Saturn red — a red of the Coastal Plain which is unlikely to fade under cultivation. At Two Sisters Ferry the present farm owner told me that he gave up the last ferry boat about thirty years ago. The old road to the river has long since grown up to brush but some aged orange-flowered specimens of R. speciosum still grow near the boat landing, just as Michaux saw and described them in 1787. This is a handsome azalea which has already become so scarce that protective measures might well be considered by those who love the wild plants of Georgia.

BY THE ATLANTIC TO VIRGINIA

Descent of the Savannah River in search of the Oconee Azalea had also led by design towards Beaufort County, South Carolina, which lies across the river on the Atlantic coast, due east of Clyo; but to cross the river one must necessarily travel very nearly to Savannah itself, which happened to be convenient for dispatching plants and for procuring labels and other needed supplies. Beaufort County, South Carolina, is the "type locality" for the Coast Azalea, R. atlanticum, which according to our map should be in flower at the end of April. Our lead was correct for on April 27th the first plants were found in quantity not far from Burton where they held splendid pink blossoms knee high above fern and inkberry in the moist soils of cutover oak woodland. From this point, and with sundry detours, the Coast Azalea was followed in constant flower through the coastal counties of the Carolinas and Virginia and, with a week or two's break, to its most northerly distributional point on the Delmarva peninsula in Delaware. Here in Delaware it is still a low growing azalea; it is generally white flowered and often highly glandular with pin-head glands on leaves and shoots as well as on the flower parts; the leaves may be glaucous beneath. It would seem likely that such plants as these are most akin to the original form of this azalea and that the pink flowered and less glandular representatives of South Carolina and Virginia may imply a measure of genic interchange with pink flowered R. canescens and nudiflorum of these regions.

In late April and early May the Coast Azalea makes truly a splendid sight as a multihued understory to the open pine woods of the coastal Carolinas. Since it is highly stoloniferous it recovers promptly in the wake of the brush fire or roadside trimming or grazing so that the year following will again see hundreds of upright flower clusters on wiry, knee-high stems borne by one plant an acre or more in extent. A mass collection of separate clones may necessitate covering a considerable territory to be sure that the 25 or 30 specimens are indeed different.

The course from Savannah to Norfolk, Virginia in search of R. atlanticum sounds very direct as just described. It is a distance of 500 road miles which was actually logged on the speedometer at a little more than twice this amount or 1200 miles — which is a fair illustration of the difference between plant collecting and just driving from one point to another! In this particular case the more inland pink azaleas of the Piedmont, R. canescens and nudiflorum, were also in flower so that the interior counties of the Carolinas were covered in a fairly thorough fashion on a zig-zag route which hit back to the coast at intervals instead of merely following it.

These side excursions were productive of many specimens and several valuable pieces of information. In South Carolina they yielded material from hybrid swarms obviously involving both R. canescens and atlanticum which are interesting as an indication that a measure of gene exchange does occur between these species; also in South Carolina it was discovered that the inland red clay hills of the Piedmont, which lie roughly between Columbia and Greenville, support very few azaleas. These hills grow excellent red cedar and have a soil pH often in the vicinity of 7.0, which is doubtless the explanation; and finally, in southern North Carolina, was discovered the interesting area of geographic overlap between southern R. canescens and northern nudiflorum as represented by pink flowered azaleas whose morphology might well test the patience of any precise taxonomist (and as they doubtless have).

A VIRGINIA TRANSECT

Saturday, May 5th, dawned a soft, spring day amid the attractions of Colonial Williamsburg; but it was an unusual tourist who departed as early as he had arrived late, having spent time to enjoy no more than a bed and a passing view of the Palace Green in his hurry to catch as many as possible of the "honeysuckles" now blooming from here to Alabama and the mid west.

Of immediate concern was a planned sampling of the Virginia population of R. nudiflorum as it extends from Chesapeake Bay and the habitat of R. atlanticum to the Blue Ridge and the mountain home of the northern Roseshell Azalea, R. roseum. Variation in the Pinxterbloom Azalea had already posed some questions upon which a transect sampling of this kind was expected to shed light. Mass collections of R. nudiflorum were made in Gloucester County at the mouth of the Chesapeake and were continued across the state at intervals of approximately forty miles to the base of the Blue Ridge near Sperryville. From this point collections were made at each 500 ft. increase in elevation to the top of Pinnacle Peak in the Shenandoah National Park, permission to make such collections in the National Parks and Forests of the East having been obtained during the planning stages of the expedition. One of the exciting finds was at the start of this run, not far from Gloucester, Va., where among some cut-back Pinxterblooms near the roadside was one with perhaps the most remarkable coloring I saw anywhere. It was a large blossom in an intense plum purple with strong yellow blotch. There was only one flower head which I cut for a specimen and after measuring, recording and pressing the collection I returned to dig the plant for horticultural use. But unhappily my "find" was already a loss for the small plant could nowhere be found in the heavy brush. Henceforth I learned to dig first and cut afterward — or mark the plant!

At the western end of this transect, azaleas were only just coming into flower at low elevations of the Blue Ridge on this first visit on May 7th. On a return on May 21st, similar azaleas were collectible to two-thirds up the mountain. Completion of the transect at the highest elevations was not possible until June 2nd, or in other words an elevation increase of approximately 2400 ft. delayed flowering by almost a month.

By this time (May 8th) R. alabamense, an azalea on which more information is needed, was surely coming into flower in Alabama. This, therefore, was the direction chosen after a brief stop for packing and mailing a good batch of specimens. This time the route kept to the western edge of Virginia and the Carolinas to secure one more coverage of R. nudiflorum and canescens before striking into Georgia where the latter species was now just about over. A call was made at the University of Georgia in Athens before heading north via Gainesville to the mountains of Lumpkin County for a check on Flame Azalea in the vicinity of Neel Gap. Early R. calendulaceum was full out in clear yellows to deep orange in Vogel State Park; it was also seen in exceptionally large flowered specimens in a small ravine just north of Gainesville. One or two of these had such brilliantly red color that one instinctively thought of the Oconee Azalea growing not too far south — and wondered whether this red in Georgia calendulaceum might have a rather special significance.

Again heading Southwest, it was on May 12th that the first true R. alabamense was found in full flower on the same hilltop in Marshall County of North Central Alabama where they had been seen in tight bud almost a month earlier. It was a real thrill to find this beautiful little white azalea with its dainty, thin-tubed flowers, yellow blotched and deliciously lemon scented. In its "best" individuals this azalea of the Alabama hills is also low growing and quite stoloniferous, it bears foliage which is often glaucous beneath — and as glandular as that of white flowered, low growing and stoloniferous R. atlanticum of coastal Delaware.

R. alabamense is obviously later flowering than R. canescens but the two have nevertheless hybridized to produce numerous intermediate individuals, intermediate in flowering time, often taller glowing than the true Alabama Azalea and varying in color from pure or yellow-blotched white to pinks, often without the deep pink tube of canescens proper. As it is followed through Cullman and Winston Counties the Alabama Azalea is found very much on the fairly dry hilltops and often on the eastern slopes where it seems tolerant of considerably more shade than R. canescens. Still white flowered but taller growing and in less "pure" form, it leaves the wooded hilltops to flow down sunny slopes to the Sipsey River in a mantle of May snow, as far as the eye can see. In such places, though without such pronounced fragrance, this is unquestionably the clearest and showiest of all white native azaleas.

Much as one would have liked to linger in this intriguing collecting area, the azaleas of the north were now calling much too loudly — calendulaceum, atlanticum north of Virginia, roseum and nudiflorum in Pennsylvania and New York, and so on; and none of them would wait. But information was still needed on the early azaleas of Tennessee. A route was consequently taken due north across the Tennessee River in the vicinity of Mussel Shoals, then east through southern Tennessee to the rising escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau. Other hills of northern Alabama were covered with the confusing R. canescens-alabamense complex mentioned earlier but good R. canescens was again found in the occasional sphagnum bogs which are scattered across the red soil land of southern Tennessee. These red soils are interspersed with limestone outcrops, and produce abundant black locust and red cedar, but few azaleas, except in these upland bogs. If these boggy areas are followed northeast from Fayetteville towards McMinnville, Tennessee, their azalea populations undergo a hesitant transition from R. canescens towards nudiflorum, settling down as relatively "pure" nudiflorum in the lowlands of Cumberland County. But the picture is quite different if we proceed directly east from Fayetteville and ascend the escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau. From below Sewanee the lower limestone strata are overlain with sand-stone and beyond this point azaleas are immediately abundant in a confused complex reminiscent of R. canescens, nudiflorum and alabamense — all thoroughly mixed together and varying in flower color from pure white to lavender, pale pink with pale tubes and pink with deep red tubes, many of the plants being highly stoloniferous. On the plateau this complex again extends north for 70 miles or more to Cumberland County, just as we have already followed it across northern Alabama from Mississippi.

On the southern edge of the Crab Orchard Mountains in Cumberland County a small detour was taken to explore Grassy Cove, a limestone sink of such proportions that farms and a small village are found on the level fertile floor of the huge hole sunken many hundreds of feet below the present level of the plateau. It has its own meandering river which flows northwest to disappear into a gaping cavern, and then changes its direction beneath a mountain whose lowest pass is 1000 ft. above the cove floor. It eventually reappears as the Sequatchie River flowing south towards Chattanooga. This was but one of so many marvels of scenery whose exploration and enjoyment was a constantly fascinating accompaniment to this quest for azaleas.