In a recent Monthly I noticed the Azalea mollis referred to as not hardy. I have a bed of this Azalea containing a dozen plants which have proved for some half dozen years as hardy as any shrub on my lawn. After our very unusually destructive winter there was not a bud, flower or leaf, on this entire bed that appeared injured by the winter. The entire bed was wonderfully beautiful and attracted great attention from all intelligent visitors. The flowers are larger and the colors more delicate than any other hardy Azalea I have seen. The plants were obtained from Mr. Parsons, Flushing, and they have never been the least injured by the winter.

I have a bed of Rhododendrons of all colors, some fifty feet by fifteen, set some eight or ten years, which have made a very vigorous growth and are annually covered with their magnificent flowers.

Also a bed of Kalmias (angustifolia) nearly as large, (three varieties,) which seem as much at home as on their native mountain side.

What gives these beds, to us, especial value and interest is the fact that, in the smoke of our manufacturing city none of the terebinthine evergreens can be grown. And these two, with the Mahonia, are, in our experience, the only entirely hardy evergreens which will thrive in our city smoke. The special thriftiness of our Rhododendron and Kalmia beds we attribute to the abundant use of rotten wood as a mulch. It is astonishing how soon a mulching of 3 or 4 inches of rotten wood will be filled with the small white fibrous roots of these shrubs, and give them vigorous growth. In our experience, trees and shrubs are often found to be " not hardy " from being planted in exposed situations when not in a thoroughly vigorous condition. Our habit for quite a number of years has been to plant all shrubbery, which has been transported, in a part of the garden which is well cultivated and where attention can be conveniently given them. Here they will prosper, while on the lawn a majority would either summer die or be winter killed. After say two years of vigorous growth in the garden, they can, on a damp day in spring, be moved to the lawn and seemingly not know of the change.

Cleveland, Ohio.

[We should look on Azalea mollis of equal hardiness with any species of Azalea. The remarks of our correspondent on hardiness in general are very much to the point. Hardiness is dependent on many things besides frost. Two plants of the same variety, side by side, will often have one taken and the other left during a severe winter. Very much depends on constitution, and constitution often depends on food. A well-fed plant will get through a hard winter, when a starved one easily succumbs.

The note on Rhododendron culture is particularly valuable. All experience shows rotten wood as particularly suited to this tribe. - Ed. G. M].