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.