Rhododendron
molle
 |
| Azalea pontica, April. 2006. Airlie Gardens. Wilmington, N. C., USA |
西欧に最初に導入されたレンゲツツジの類は，中国原産の羊躑躅（トウレンゲツツジ，R. molle）で，1824年には，英国のロッディジーズ育苗園で栽培されていて，ジョージ・ロッディジーズは Azalea sinensis （支那のサツキ）の名を与えた．但しこの美しく人目を引く花色のツツジは寒さに弱く，英国では温室でしかその本領を発揮できなかった．
1826年には，ロバート・スウィートが，彼の育苗園のカタログに Azalea sinensis の名で掲載し，1829年には，色変わりの個体を美しい図版と共に掲載し，次の年のカタログには
β type として記載した．
ランの栽培家・研究者として有名なジョン・リンドレーも，トウレンゲツツジを AZALEA pontica ; var.
sinensis. の名で記述し，バルカン半島原産の Azalea pontica （ポンティック・アザレア，= Rhododendron luteum）の変種とした．その後一旦姿を消したが，1845 年にロバート・フォーチュンによって再度紹介された．
シーボルトが 1830 年に日本からレンゲツツジを持ち込んだが，彼はこれを
トウレンゲツツジ
R. molle と同定していた（次記事）．
レンゲツツジはトウレンゲツツジより耐寒性に富んでいたため，英国や欧州の屋外庭園で栽培でき，オランダのボスコープのコスター商会（Koster at Boskoop in Holland）が最初に作り出した，多彩な花色を持つ「モリス」アザレア (“Molis” azaleas) の主要な親になって，欧州の庭園を彩った．(A.
M. Coats “Garden Shrubs and Their Histories” 1965)
18世紀から19世紀，イギリスの最も有名な園芸業者のひとつのロッディジーズ家（Loddiges, Joachim
Conrad, (1738–1826)，George Loddiges (1786 – 1846）)は，世界各地の珍しい植物を集めて，ヨーロッパの園芸愛好家に供給した．息子のジョージはHackneyに大きな植物園（Hackney Botanic Garden）をつくり，1817年から1834年の間，世界中の希少植物の図版入りで紹介する雑誌，『ボタニカル・キャビネット “Botanical Cabinet”』を刊行した．
この書の第9巻 (1824) には，彼の園で育てた西欧最初のトウレンゲツツジの図譜が ”Azalea
sinensis” の名で掲載された．記事の中で，花が咲いた前年の 1823 年に中国から移入され，温室の中で香りは良くないが，ポンテポンティック・アザレアとの類似性は全くない．まだ，現時点では繁殖に成功していないが，挿し木や取り木で増やせ，中国北部に自生するので，欧州北部でも屋外で栽培できるであろう．と言っている．
注目すべきはポンティック・アザレアとは全く異なると言い切っている事である．
★G. Loddiges “LODDIGES' BOTANICAL CABINET”
v.9 (1824)
 |
| 1824 LODDIGES' BOTANICAL CABINET v9 885 |
No. 885,
AZALEA
SINENSIS
Class Order
PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA
We received this
splendid plant in 1823,
from China : it flowered in the month of
May last. The blossoms are inodorous ;
they are exceedingly large, and more of the
Rhododendron shape than the Azalea pon-
tica, to which it has no resemblance except
in colour.
It is deciduous, and we have little doubt
Of its becoming naturalized to our climate,
as it is probably from the northern
providences
of China. We have not yet multiplied it
but expect that it will increase by layers
and cuttings. It has hitherto been in the
greenhouse, and potted in peat and loan.
The vast empire
of China abounds in
plants of unknown beauty, as in fact does
every part of the globe : new discoveries
are daily making, yet immerse field remain
unexplored, so that there will always be
enough of our blessed Creator’s works to
exite our feeble powers to admiration and
gratitude. And if it be so in this short
and
imperfect life, how much more may we
expert in the ineffably glorious realms of
immortality.
イギリスの植物学者，園芸家，鳥類学者であり，最初の実践的植物学者としても知られる★ロバート・スウィート（Robert Sweet, 1783 – 1835）は，イギリスの庭園や温室で栽培されている植物のリストを作成し（『英国庭園植物誌
“Sweet's Hortus Britannicus”』 (1826. 1832），また多くの図入りの書籍を出版した．図版は主に，王立植物園（キューガーデン）の植物画家のエドウィン・ダルトン・スミス (Edwin Dalton Smith, 1800 - 1883) が描いた．
★Robert Sweet, “Sweet's Hortus Britannicus” の第一版 (1826) には，トウレンゲツツジ (Azalea sinense) がロッディジーズの “Botanical
Cabinet” (1824) を参照する形で記載されている．
ARRANGED IN NATURAL ORDERS: WITH THE ADDITION OF
THE Linnean Classes and Orders to which they belong, Reference to the Books
where they are described, their Native Places of Growth, when introduced, Time
of Flowering, Duration, & Reference to Figures ; with numerous Synonyms.
264
MONOTROPA. N. MONOTROPA. Decandria
Monogynia L.
Uniflora. N. one-flowerd N. America. 1822. 6. 8. H. ♄. Hook. Ex. Flor. 85.
Sect. III. RHODODRACEÆ. Don. Prod. P. 152
Azalea. W. AZALEA. Penandria Monogynia L.
1
indica. W. Indian. China 1808 3. 5. G. ♄.
2
sinensis. B. C. Chinese 1824 G. ♄. Lodd. Bot. cab. 885.
ABBREVIATIONS
B. C. Loggiges’ Botaincal Cabinet.
G. ♄. Greenhouse
Shrub.
更に，スウィートが刊行した図譜『英国の花卉庭園 “The British
Flower Garden”』 (1823 - 1829) の第三巻 (1827) には， Grosvenor, Row, Chelsea の Mr. Dennis の育苗園で開花した，ロッディジーズのとは，花色が薄黄色のトウレンゲツツジを，RHODODÈNDRON
sinense β flavènscens. として記載している．
更に，スウィートが刊行した図譜『英国の花卉庭園 “The British
Flower Garden”』 (1823 - 1829) の第三巻 (1827) には， Grosvenor, Row, Chelsea の Mr. Dennis の育苗園で開花した，ロッディジーズのとは，花色が薄黄色のトウレンゲツツジを，RHODODÈNDRON
sinense β flavènscens. として記載している．彼は記述の中で，「すでに述べたように，ツツジ属とシャクナゲ屬を明確に別の属とすることは出来ない」と，現在の分類の先駆けとなる azalea を rhododendron に統一する見解を表明している．
★ R. Sweet “The British Flower Garden” vol. 3, (1827)
290
RHODODÈNDRON sinense β flavènscens.
Pale yellow Chinese Rhododendron,
Natural Order. Ericeæ. D Don fl. nepal. p. 148.
Subordo III. RHODORACÆ. D. Don loc cit. p. 152.
RHODODENDRON. Supra fol.
250.
Sect. II. AZALEA. Corolla basi tubulosa,
infundibuliformis. Stamina
5.—Frutices v. Arbores, plerique deciduis; ramis
piloso-hispidis.
Folia oblonga,
ovata v. elliptica, pilosa. Flores corymbosi, speciosi,
colore
varii.
R. sinense, siibdeciduum, foliis ellipticis
acutiusculis piloso-pubes-
centibus
penninerviis margine ciliatis; subtus canescentibus, co-
rymbis
multifloris, pedunculis corollisque pubescentibus, staminibus
limbum
subaequantibus.
Azalea sinensis. Lodd. bot. cab. t. 885. Swt.
hort. brit. p. 264.
α flammeum
Lodd. loc. cit. t. 885.
β flavenscens.
Supra.
Stem in our
plant between two and three feet in
height, branched
below, and clothed with a brown bark;
branches erect, or very
slightly spreading, thickly covered
with rigid
bristle-like hairs. Leaves somewhat
deciduous,
alternate,
elliptic, some of them above five inches
long, and two
broad, attenuated a little to the base,
scarcely acute,
but terminated in a yellow glandular
point, regularly
feather -nerved underneath, the nerves
branched a
little within the margin, reticulately veined,
densely clothed
with short soft hairs on both sides, par-
ticularly
underneath, where they are canescent, the
margins thickly
fringed with short stiff hairs ; of a brownish
green on the
upper side, and pale white underneath,
very soft to the
touch, the midrib underneath thinly
clothed with
stiff yellowish bristles : upper leaves
crowded close
together in a sort of fascicle. Petioles
short, clothed
with hispid hairs, channelled on the upper
side, and
rounded below. Scales at the base of
the
buds before the
leaves expand, subpersistent, lanceolate,
taper-pointed,
hollow on the inside and keeled at the
back, pubescent.
Flowers pale yellow, in a terminal
manyflowered
corymb. Bractes variable, pubescent, deciduous,
surrounding the
flowers before they expand : outer
ones roundly
ovate, terminated in a sharp rigid point :
inner ones
spathulate, and more of a membranaceous
texture, the
points acute, but much less sharp ; inside
of the large
bractes are other very narrow, nearly subu-
late ones. Peduncles nearly an inch long,
cylindrical,
clothed with a
short, soft, woolly down. Calyx
short,
5-cleft,
pubescent, the segments short, ovate, fringed and
terminated with
long white hairs, the two middle ones
much shorter
than the two upper, and the lower one.
Corolla funnel-form,
clothed with a short pubescence on
the outside;
tube 5-angular, widening upwards: limb
5-cleft, the
segments ovate, mucronulate, imbricate at
the base : upper
one broadest, and undulate, or curled
round the
margins, and spotted down the throat with
light greenish
spots; the other four nearly equal in size,
and flat. Stamens 5, nearly equal with the
segments of
the corolla,
when overblown slightly exserted ; filaments
unequal in
length, clothed with short, rigid, spreading
hairs, about
half way up, the upper part smooth, attached
to the back of
the anthers : anthers two-lobed, the
lobes opening in
a hole at the outside near the point, for
the exclusion of
the white stringy pollen. Ovarium
deeply 5-angled,
thickly clothed with woolly hairs.
Style smooth, longer than
the stamens. Stigma green,
capitate, hollow
in the centre, papillose.
We have before
stated that Rhododendron and Azalea
cannot be kept apart as distinct genera ; we have therefore
now given the
latter as a distinct section only of
the former, the
only essential difference in them being
the number of
stamens ; and this does not even hold
good, as some of
the supposed varieties of Azalea indica
bear ten
stamens, and are therefore not different in that
respect from Rhododendron; they will most probably
form another
distinct section of the genus ; but as the
whole mule
together so readily, the produce will most
likely bring all
the sections together.
The present handsome variety
has been lately imported from
China, and flowered for the
first time last year, at the Nursery of
Mr. Tate, in Sloane Street.
The present plant from which our drawing
was made, flowered at the
Nursery of Mr. Dennis, Grosvenor
Row, Chelsea, this Autumn;
the whole of the flowers had a more or
less petaloid appendage at
the back on the inside, as an attempt to become
double, as most probably some
of the young plants from the seed
of it will be : we have no
doubt but it will be as hardy as the common
Azalea pontica, and requires
the same treatment; to be planted in
peat earth or very sandy
loam, and maybe increased by layers, or seeds.
For the generic
derivation see fol. 263. Azalea is derived
From αζάλεoαs,
dry or arid, from many of the species
growing wild in
dry, arid situations.
1. Two of the
outer Bractes. 2. Calyx. 3. Tube of the corolla split open, to
show the four
appendages, which appears to be an attempt to become double.
4. One of the
Stamens. 5. Ovarium, terminated by the Style and Stigma.
この β type は “Sweet's Hortus Britannicus”
の第二版 (1830) にも，リストアップされている．
Syst.
Name. Colour. Eng.Name. Native. Inrod. Flower. Habit. Ref.
to Figure
Azalea Indica B. M.
30 sinense. B. F. G. (ye.)
Chinese 1824
H.♄.
α flammeum. B. F. G. (or.)
flame-coloured H.
♄. Lodd. Bot. cab. t. 885
β flarescens. B. F. G. (ye.)
pale yellow 1826 H. ♄. Swt. Br. Fl. Gar. t
.290.
この版では，生育環境が前版の “Greenhouse Shrub” から “Hardy Shrub or Tree” に変更されている．
ABBREVIATIONS
B. C. Loggiges’
Botaincal Cabinet.
B. F. G. Sweet’s
British flower Garden.
H. ♄. Hardy Shrub or Tree
イギリスの博物画家として著名なシデナム・エドワーズ（Sydenham Teast Edwards，1768 - 1819）は，モンマスシャーのUskに生まれた．幼いころから画才を示し，11歳の時に，ウィリアム・カーティス (William Curtis, 1746 –1799) が刊行した植物画譜『ロンドンの植物誌 “Flora Londinensis”』の模写を行った．エドワーズの絵を見たカーティスの友人がカーティスに紹介し，エドワーズはカーティスから植物学と植物画の訓練を受けた．
1787年から1815年の間に『ボタニカル・マガジン』のために1,700枚の水彩画を描き，1800年に "Cynographica Britannica" の図版を描き，1805年から1807年の間に "New Botanic Garden" のため，1812年に "New Flora Britannica" のために植物画を描くなどの業績を挙げた．
カーティスの没した後，『ボタニカル・マガジン』の編集を引き継いだジョン・シムズ (John Sims, 1749 –1831) と仲違いした後，1815年から1819年の間，自ら編集をおこなって植物雑誌，『ボタニカル・レジスター "Botanical
Register"』を刊行した．
彼の死後は，植物学者，園芸家，蘭研究家として知られるジョン・リンドリー（John
Lindley, 1799 – 1865）が "Botanical
Register" の編集を受け継ぎ，1847年の第33巻まで刊行した．
★ J. Lindley “Botanical
Register” Vol. 15 (1829) で，リンドリーは，トウレンゲツツジをポンティック・アザレア (Azalea pontica = Rhododendron luteum) の変種と位置付けて，記述した．その中で，非常に見栄えがするこの花木は，今は温室で育てられているが，将来的には英国の屋外庭園で十分その真価を発揮するだろうと，高く評価している．
1253
AZALEA* pontica ; var. sinensis.
Chinese Yellow
Azalea.
---------------
PENTANDRIA
MONOGYNIA.
Nat. ord. ERICEÆ.
AZALEA. - Suprà, vol. 2. fol. 120.
---------------
A. pontica ; foliis oblongis basi
angustatis subundulatis rugosis subtùs glan-
cescentibus pilosis,
corymbo terminali capitato, corollæ tubo piloso-
glanduloso limbo
subæquali.
A. pontica. Linn. sp. 1669, aliorumque.
Var. sinensis.
A. sinensis. Lodd. botanical cabinet, t. 885.
This fine plant
has been received from China, at different
times, both by Messrs. Loddiges of Hackney,
and
Mr. Wells of Redleaf, with each of whom it
has now produced
its flowers. The specimen from which our
drawing
was taken was communicated by Mr. Wells in
April of the
present year ; and about the same time we
saw a bush in
Messrs. Loddiges' Greenhouse covered with
clusters of
blossoms. It is one of the most shewy
plants we know,
and is, upon the whole, decidedly superior
to the now
common Azalea pontica of Asia Minor. Mr.
Wells s plant
is not exactly the same as that represented
in the Botanical
Cabinet, differing from it in being a little more glaucous on
the under side of the leaves, and in having
the midrib
covered beneath with long, scattered hairs.
That the plant
now figured, and those in the possession
of Messrs. Loddiges, were really introduced
from China,
there is no kind of doubt. But it does not
to us appear by
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Azalea is a slight alteration of αζάλεoαs, arid and derives its name
from
the dry rocky places in which the species are found.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
any means certain that it is therefore a
native of China,
as it is commonly believed to be ; and for
the following
reasons. In the first place, no trace is to
be found among
the writers upon Chinese plants of such a
thing as a yellow
Azalea - a circumstance which is not likely
to have occurred
if so beautiful a species as the present
had either been long
cultivated in the Chinese Gardens, or been
a native of their
country. In the second place, this plant
has as little affinity
to the genuine Chinese Azaleas as it can
have to remain in
the same genus with them ; and thirdly, it does not seem
to us practicable to
distinguish it from the Azalea pontica,
from which it differs chiefly in its head
of flowers being
more compact, its stamens shorter, and the
upper segment
of the corolla being spotted. We think it
extremely probable
that these yellow Chinese Azaleas have
found their
way to China from the Caucasus, by the
intervention of
some of the Russian caravans which annually
visit Nert-
chinsk for the purpose of trading with the
Chinese.
However this
may be, we are clearly of opinion that it
is not botanically separable from the
species to which we
have referred it.
Probably quite
hardy. Messrs. Loddiges have hitherto
kept their plants in the Greenhouse ; and
the specimen
from which this drawing was taken was also
produced in
a Conservatory : but we think there can be
no reasonable
doubt of its being as patient of cold as
the species of which
we consider it a variety.
J.L.
シーボルトの薫陶を受けた伊藤圭介 (1803-1901）が，シーボルトにレンゲツツジの腊葉標本を提供したことが，圭介の『シーボルトへ所贈腊葉目録』に記載されていて，文政10年 (1828) に伊藤圭介が長崎のシーボルトを訪れた際に持参したおしば帳には「「一 以 草 イチゲサウ 雙瓶梅 Anemone Anemone baicalen, 」から「二百七十二 木 スギ 杉 Cupressus japonica」まで，272点の標本の和名が記載されている．その中には，「一百十七 木 レンゲツヽジ Azalea」のページもあり，圭介がレンゲツツジの腊葉標本を渡したことが分かる．
