1132 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
space, if it be allowed abundance of room. The branches are round, with a 
rather testaceous bark, marked by scars. The leayes are long, coriaceous, 
quite entire, smooth and shining above, and somewhat ferruginous beneath, 
The flower buds are large and terminal, and the corollas of a fine purple. 
The seeds are small, and of irregular shape, like minute sawdust. In proper 
soil, if kept moist, the plant will make shoots, when young, of | ft. or more in 
length in a season, attaining the height of 4 ft. or 5ft. in 5 or 6 years: but 
afterwards it grows more slowly; and, when a large bush, seldom makes 
shoots above 6 in. in length. It appears to be of considerable durability. 
Geography. The Rhododéndron pénticum is a native of the Levant, in 
various places; of Georgia, Caucasus, and the Himalayas, and various other 
parts of Asia; but not of North America, unless #&. purptreum and 2. 
catawbiénse be varieties of this species, which may very possibly be the case. 
According to Pallas, this shrub is found nowhere in Russia, except in the 
southern calcareous district of Caucasus, where it grows in humid situations, 
along with the beech and the alder. Like all hair-rooted plants, it is generall 
found, in a wild state, in soft or minutely divided soil, but not always in soil 
analogous to our peat. It is often found on clayey loam, but it is only when 
this is kept moist, by being in a shady situation. On mountains, it never 
ascends so high as to approach the line of perpetual snow. 
History. The rhododendron was well known to the Greeks, both by that 
name, and by the name of rhododaphne, or the rose laurel. The Romans 
also were acquainted with this shrub; but, as Pliny observes, they had not the 
good fortune to give a name to it; for it was in ancient Italy, as it is at present 
throughout Europe, known principally by its original Greek name. The 
ancients were well acquainted with the poisonous qualities of the flowers of 
the rhododendron and azalea, both of which are abundant in Pontus; and the 
flowers had such an influence on the honey of the country, that the Romans 
would not receive it in tribute, but obliged the inhabitants of that part of 
Pontus to pay them a double portion of wax in lieu of it. Both the rhodo- 
dendron and the azalea were abundant in the neighbourhood of Trebisond, 
in the time of Xenophon, and they still are so. Xenophon reports that, 
when the army of 10,000 Greeks, in their celebrated retreat, approached that 
city, his soldiers, having eaten the honey which they found in the environs, 
were seized with a violent vomiting and purging, followed by a species of 
delirium, so severe, that those least affected resembled drunken persons, and 
the others madmen. The ground was strewed about with the bodies of the 
soldiers, as it is after a battle. Nobody died, however, and the malady disap- 
peared 24 hours after it had commenced, leaving only a sensation of great 
weakness. Turner, in his Herbal, must have had this story in view, when, in 
1568, he wrote the following passage : — “ I have sene thys tre (the rhodo- 
daphne) in diverse places of Italy; but I care not if it neuer com into Eng- 
land, seyng it in all poyntes is lyke a Pharesy; that is, beauteus without, and 
within a rauenus wolf and murderer.” It is possible, however, that Dr. 
Turner may have referred to the oleander, to which, as appears by Gerard 
(edit. 1636, p. 1406.), the names of rhododendron, rhododaphne, nerium, 
and oleander were at that time applied. The poisonous properties of the 
flowers of the R. pénticum are denied by Giildenstadt, and also by Pallas ; 
both these authors asserting that it was the honey from the flowers of Azalea 
pontica (which grows pleutifully among the bushes of the R. ponticum) that 
produced the deleterious effect on Xenophon’s soldiers ; it having been found, 
in modern times, that honey made from the flowers of this shrub, taken in 
large quantities, is highly deleterious. #. pénticum (as we have seen, p. 83.) 
was first introduced by Conrad Loddiges, in 1763; and it has since spread 
through the country with such an extraordinary degree of rapidity ; that there 
is now scarcely a shrubbery or pleasure-ground in Britain without it. 
Properties and Uses. In its native country, we are not aware that this 
plant is applied to any use, except that to which all woody plants are 
applicable; viz. of being cut down for fuel. In Britain, it is planted as an 
