Rhododendron multiflorum (Maxim.) Craven

Flowers purplish pink; some of the hairs on the flower-stalks eglandular. Leaves with long hairs or almost glabrous above. It is probable that most of the plants grown in British gardens as ‘Menziesii purpurea’ belong to this species and not to the true M. purpurea Maxim. (=Rhododendron kroniae Craven). In the Botanical Magazine, n.s., t. 35, a flowering spray is figured, taken from a plant at Borde Hill, Sussex, in which the flowers are coloured as in the species but the flower-stalks bear eglandular hairs only. This variant was named Menziesia ciliicalyx var. eglandulosa by the late Dr Turrill in his note accompanying the plate, but it is perhaps no more than an extreme state of the species. Commercial plants distributed as ‘Menziesia purpurea’ show the same character; they and the Borde Hill plant may well be all of one clone. R. multiflorum is one of the most charming of small ericaceous shrubs. It is quite hardy and flowers unfailingly every year if grown in a not too shady position. The expanding buds are bright blue and almost as decorative as the flowers. In a well-lighted position it makes a bushy plant about 3 ft high.