1132 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART HI. 



space, if it be allowed abundance of room. The branches are round, with a 

 rather testaceous bark, marked by scars. The leaves are long, coriaceous, 

 quite entire, smooth and shining above, and somewhat ferruginous beneath. 

 The flower buds are large and terminal, antl 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 1 ft. or more in 

 length in a season, attaining the height of 4 ft. or 5 ft. in 5 or 6 years : but 

 afterwards it grows more slowly ; and, when a large bush, seldom makes 

 shoots above G in. in length. It appears to be of considerable dural)ility. 



Geography. The /Rhododendron ponticum is a native of the Levant, in 

 various places ; of Georgia, Caucasus, and the Himala} as, and various other 

 parts of Asia; but not of North America, unless R. purpureum and R. 

 catawbi(?nse 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, wiiere it grows in humid situations, 

 along with the beech and the alder. Like all hair-rooted plants, it is generally 

 found, in a wild state, in soft or minutely divided soil, but not always in soil 

 analogous to our peat. It is often fouml 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 tiie 

 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 tlie 

 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. JJoth 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 (ireeks, in their celebrated retreat, approaciicd that 

 city, his soldiers, having eaten the honey which they found in the environs, 

 were seized with a violent vomiting and purging, followed l)y 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 2\ hours after it had commenced, lea\-ing 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 rhotlo- 

 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. ponticum 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 plentifully 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. R. ponticum (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 [)Iants are 

 applicable; viz. of being cut down for fiiel. In Britain, it is planted as an 



