Enkianthus
(from enkuos, enlarged, and anthos, a flower; flowers swollen). ORD. Ericaceae. A genus of five species of elegant greenhouse or hardy evergreen or deciduous shrubs. Flowers white, scarlet, or rose, large, terminal, drooping; corolla campanulate, with a five-cleft limb. Leaves petiolate, coriaceous and persistent, or membranous and deciduous, entire or serrulate. They thrive well in compost of loam and peat, in equal parts. Increased by cuttings, made of the ripe wood, and inserted under a bell glass, during the spring months, without heat. They should be potted carefully. E. campanulatus (bell-shaped).* fl. greenish-white, tinted with red, in fascicled racemes, pendent; corolla cylindrico-campanulate. June. l. stalked, elliptic, argutely-serrulate, 2in. long. Japan. Hardy. SYN. Andromeda campanulata.
E. himalaicus (Himalayan). fl. in terminal umbels; corollas 1/2in. long, campanulate, five-lobed, five-angled, yellowish-red, with reddish streaks. June. l. ovate-lanceolate, acuminate. h. 20ft. Sikkim, 1879. Greenhouse. (B. M. 6460.) E. japonicus (Japanese).* fl. white, globose, nodding. February. l. elliptic-obovate, membranous, dying off a brilliant golden-orange in autumn. Japan, 1870. A slender hardy deciduous shrub, with whorled branches. (B. M. 5822.) E. quinqueflorus (five-flowered).* fl. red at the base, pale flesh-colour at the tips, large, drooping, five or six together at the tops of the branches. February to September. l. broad, opposite, oblong-elliptic, acuminated. Stem shrubby. h. 3ft. to 10ft. China, 1812. Greenhouse. SYN. E. reticulatus. (B. M. 1649.) E. reticulatus (netted). A synonym of E. quinqueflorus.