XX. 9. THE ROSE BAY. 333 



XX. 9. THE ROSE BAY. RHODODE'NDRON. L. 



Shrubs or trees, mostly evergreen, with alternate, very entire 

 leaves, and showy, purple, lilac, rose-colored, white or yellow 

 flowers, in terminal corymbs, growing naturally on the moun- 

 tains of Europe and Asia, in North America, and on the continent 

 and islands of India. Many of the species have been much culti- 

 vated for their beauty, and many curious and beautiful varieties 

 have been formed by hybridizing. The Tree Rose Bay, R. arbb- 

 reum, found on the mountains of Nepaul, at a height of not less 

 than ten thousand feet above the sea, has natural varieties, with 

 purple, intensely red, rose-colored, and white flowers. " They 

 attain the size of very large forest trees, and are noble objects at 

 all times. They blossom simultaneously in April, in which state 

 the beauty of them surpasses all description, the ample crown 

 of the trees being entirely covered with bunches of large and 

 elegant blossoms." — Walllch, PL As. Rar. The flowers are 

 eaten by the natives, and are formed into a jelly by Europeans. 

 The Alpine Rose Bay, R. ferrugineum, which grows in the 

 pasture-lands amongst the Alps and Appenines, has extremely 

 beautiful flowers of lilac, inclining to rose-color, of a disagree- 

 able odor. The leaves are considered poisonous, and a weak 

 infusion of them acts powerfully as a sudorific. The Pontic 

 Rose Bay, R. Ponticum, a native of Lebanon and the moun- 

 tains of Asia Minor, has flowers of nearly the same color, the 

 odor of which is considered by the inhabitants of the coast of 

 the Black Sea as unwholesome, and the honey made by bees 

 feeding on the flowers has, since the time of Xenophon, been 

 considered poisonous, producing vertigo and nausea in those 

 who eat it. Pallas denies that this property of the honey is 

 owing to the effect of the flowers of the rose bay, and attributes 

 it to the flowers of Azalea P6?ilica, which, he says, grows plen- 

 tifully among the bushes of rhododendron, and which is known 

 to render honey deleterious. The Purple Rose Bay, R. puni- 

 ceum, so called from the color of the flowers, is a magnificent 

 tree of the mountains of the north of India. Its leaves are often 

 covered with a sugary substance, which hardens to the appear- 



