This Dwarf Crimson Azalea must be a beautiful plant, and will, we think, prove hardy in a large portion of this country. It is described as follows in Paxton's Flower Garden:

"This is a dwarf evergreen bush, resembling Rhododendron ferrugineum in habit The branches when young are closely covered with long thin white ramentaceous scales; when old they are brown and coarsely hairy. The leaves are as email as those of Box, flat, obovate, very round at point, coarsely hairy, paler on the under side. The flowers are rich crimson, almost campanulate, tolerably regularly five-lobed, with that kind of double corolla which is called 'hose in hose.' No calyx is discoverable; but whether that organ is absent, or is converted into the external corolla, is uncertain.

"A specimen was exhibited to the Horticultural Society on April the 23d, by Messrs. Standish and Noble, of Bagshot, with whom it had flowered, on which occasion it was distinguished by a Silver Knightian medal. Branches, uninjured by cold, were produced from a plant which had been exposed during the whole winter without protection; and the species is expected to be perfectly hardy. Mr. Fortune has communicated the following information concerning it:

"'This pretty Azalea was found in a nursery near Shanghae, and has been brought from the far-famed city of Sho-chow-foo. Further than this its origin is unknown. It is no doubt a very distinct species, and probably comes from a country further north than any of its race in China, or, at all events, from a higher elevation on the mountains. As a green-house plant in this country it will be greatly prized. The striking form and novel color of its flowers, its small leaves and neat habit, will render it most desirable for bouquets and for decorative purposes. But it is not unlikely that it may prove perfectly hardy in our climate; indeed it stood out in the Bag shot Nursery lost winter, without the slightest protection, and flowered most profusely last spring. We may, therefore, hope to have, in time, a race of Chinese Azaleas growing and blooming in our borders, and vieing in beauty with the well-known Rhododendrons of North America.'"

"Although the plant is in a monstrous state, and is clearly a garden production, yet as it seems to belong to some wild form of the genus not before described, we have felt justified in treating it as a distinct species".