Mr. Redmond, the editor of the Southern Cultivator, has favored us with a beautiful drawing of a new, or at least undescribed Rhododendron, which we have great pleasure in presenting to our readers, with the following narrative of its discovery. Plants are promised us in the Spring, when we may be able to give a further account of it:-

Editors Southern Cultivator: I send you a drawing of a flowering evergreen shrub, recently discovered on some of the mountains in Macon County, North Carolina, which, in point of beauty and magnificence, is second only to the Magnolia Grandiflora.

It is a nameless and undescribed variety of Rhododendron; there is, however, a traditionary account of its discovery some sixty years since, by a botanist by the name of Fraser, then exploring this country, under the patronage of the then Emperor Paul, of Russia. Fraser died suddenly on his return to St.

* See Frontispiece.

Petersburg, which, probably, is the cause of an account of it never haying been published.

The annual burning of the forests in which it grows usually destroys it, so that it is extremely difficult to find a specimen of it. Some four or five years since, however, S. McDowell, Esq., of Franklin, Macon County, North Carolina, rediscovered this truly gorgeous plant, and for a year or two past has been engaged in propagating them, by removing the plants to his garden near that place. The shrub grows to the height of four or five feet, and is of easy cultivation; the foliage is larger and more rich than that of the Pontic varieties with which we have compared it; the panicles of flowers, too, are larger and more brilliant in color. Mr. McDowell sent us a box of the flowers in June, which we compared with those of Ponticum, which we fortunately then had in bloom, and which were inferior to it in all respects. The foliage also differs from it, being larger and heavier, having golden yellow footstalks and midrib, the peduncles to the flowers being likewise of the same color, whilst those of Ponticum are green; the under-surface of the leaves are nearly white and of a velvety texture, differing from R. Maximum and R. Catawbiense in not becoming ferruginous.

No native American flower can exceed it in habit and beauty, and it must become a popular acquisition to the shrubbery and flower garden, being sufficiently hardy to endure any climate. Its color is a bright crimson approaching towards scarlet; the panicles are composed of a large number of flowers, from twenty to thirty, forming a conical mass nearly as large as a man's head; the contrast between these and its dark-green foliage is very rich and magnificent, and can only be conceived of by being seen.

The labors of Mr. McDowell have been both arduous and unremitting in transferring these plants to his grounds, as they have only been found on the tops of the highest and most inaccessible mountains, the only approach being on foot; he has employed men to bring them some six or seven miles on their shoulders, it being the only mode of conveyance practicable. Specimens of flowers and leaves have been sent to many of our most celebrated botanists and cultivators of Rhododendrons, and, as yet, all have failed to identify it with any previously known, and it will probably prove to be a new species.

We hope the industry and labors of Mr. McDowell may meet with a suitable reward in the sale of his noble plant; and those who procure them, we will guarantee, will never regret having done so.

J. VAN BUREN.

CLARKSVILLE,, GA., August, 1855.

N. B. - The drawing I send you is a fac simile of a medium sized panicle of flowers sent me by Mr. McDowell. - J. Y. B.