RHODODENDRON 



5003 



RHONE 



dates are interviewed in person by the selec- 

 tion committee. Similar regulations obtain in 

 the British colonies, with such modifications as 

 are made necessary by local conditions. 



The Rhodes Scholars. The Rhodes scholars 

 may, at Oxford, enter the undergraduate or the 

 graduate departments, and they may compete 

 for honors and strive for degrees. Up to the 

 present time the majority have shown a prefer- 

 ence for law or jurisprudence, so the Rhodes 

 scholars will some day help to fill the ranks of 

 distinguished public men. Reports on the 

 standing of American holders of these scholar- 

 ships are both interesting and illuminating. 

 The American Rhodes scholar is praised for his 

 energy, versatility and interest in his work, but 

 in scholarship he is regarded as superficial and 

 inaccurate, as compared with the English stu- 

 dent. B.M.W. 



Consult Parkin's The Rhodes Scholarships; 

 Scholz and Hornbeck's Oxford and the Rhodes 

 Scholarships; Wylie's Cecil Rhodes and his 

 Scholars as Factors in International Conciliation. 



RHODODENDRON, TO doh den'dron, a genus 

 of trees and shrubs belonging to the heath 

 family. The group includes several species 

 which are known for the beauty of their flowers 

 and for their evergreen foliage. One of the best 

 known is the 

 great rhododen- 

 dron, or wild lau- 

 rel, which grows 

 profusely in the 

 Alleghany Moun- 

 tains and there 

 forms almost im- 

 passable thickets 

 through the inter- 

 locking of the 

 branches. This 

 rhododendron is a 

 shrub or small 

 tree, which rarely 

 grows higher than thirty-five feet. Its large, 

 white or rose-colored, bell-shaped flowers, when 

 seen against the background of glossy evergreen 

 leaves, are magnificently beautiful. Another 

 species, the catawba rhododendron, is a shrub 

 that is common in Virginia. It produces bril- 

 liant lilac-purple flowers, and is a popular plant 

 in the gardens of large estates, great numbers 

 being shipped north for transplanting. Other 

 species arc found in the Pacific coast region, 

 and some magnificent specimens grow in the 

 ilayas and other mountainous regions of 

 India. Numerous varieties have been devel- 



RHODODENDRON 



oped by nurserymen. The states of Washing- 

 ton and West Virginia have adopted the rho- 

 dodendron as the state emblem. 



Consult Watson's Rhododendrons and Azaleas. 



RHOMBUS, rom'bus, a plane figure bounded 

 by four equal straight lines, whose opposite 

 sides are parallel and whose opposite angles 

 are two equal acute and two equal obtuse 

 angles. A rhombus may be converted into 

 a rectangle of the same base and altitude as 

 the rhombus (see Parallelogram under MEN- 

 SURATION). Therefore the area of a rhombus is 

 equal to the area of a rectangle having the 

 same base and altitude as the rhombus. Note 

 that the altitude is the perpendicular distance 

 between the base and the opposite side. 



The area oj a rhombus is also equal to one- 

 half the product of its diagonals. This may be 

 seen from the accompanying illustration. 



The rhombus is 

 divided Into two 

 equal triangles, ac 

 being the base of 

 each of them, ob 

 the altitude of one 

 and od the alti- 

 tude of the other. [Explanation of the figure 

 Area of triangle Is * Iven in the text.] 



a&c=ocx^p Area of triangle ode =acXy. Area 

 of rhombus=acx - 



Not all mathematicians agree on the mean- 

 ing of the term rhombus. Rhombus is defined 

 by two leading writers thus: "A parallelogram 

 that has two adjacent sides equal." "A rhom- 

 bus is an equilateral parallelogram." These 

 and others include the square in the term. But 

 in general practice the distinction as to angles, 

 the square having right and the rhombus 

 oblique angles, is observed. Thus the defini- 

 tion given at the opening of the article is th< 

 one most generally accepted. A.H. 



RHONE, rohn, the most important commer- 

 cial river of France, rises in Switzerland in 

 the Rhone glacier, 7,550 feet above the sea. 

 It flows through Lake Geneva and southwest 

 to the city of Lyons, France, where it turns 

 abruptly south, and forming a large delta, emp- 

 ties into the Gulf of Lyons, an arm of the 

 Mediterranean Sea. The river is 500 miles long 

 and is navigable for 350 miles; its chief tribu- 

 taries arc the Saonc, which meets it at Lyons, 

 the 1 Iserc and the Durance. By a scries of 

 great canals, navigation from the Rhine, the 

 Seine, the Loire, the Meuse and Belgian canals 

 is continued to the Rhone, making it the great 



