104 THE TREES AND SHRUBS [LECT. 



such as the Erica arborea, and that the Myrica of 

 Virgil may merely indicate Heather, although the 

 absence of the Ulex europceus from Sicily (Gussone) 

 forbids us to extend the same to the JJ.VPLKT] of 

 Theocritus. 



RHODODENDRON AND AZALEA. 



The Rhododendron does not occur in Greece, 

 but is common on the borders of the Euxine, and 

 has been supposed to communicate those noxious 

 properties to the honey of that country, of which 

 Xenophon a speaks. Pliny b also seems to indicate, 

 that it produces madness in those who partake of 

 it : stating that this property is attributable to the 

 flowers of a plant he calls Rhododendron, which 

 the bees frequent. 



In the preceding chapter, however, having first 

 mentioned that at Heraclea, in Pontus, the honey 

 is very poisonous, he goes on in the succeeding 

 paragraph to give it as his opinion, that the poison 

 is extracted from a plant found in that country, 

 called " cegolethron" because it is fatal to beasts 

 of burden, and to goats in particular. 



The word " Rhododendron," however, Pliny, in lib. 

 xvi. c. 33, uses as an equivalent to the " Nerium" 

 or Rhododaphne, which he describes as an ever- 

 green, bearing a near resemblance to the Rose, 

 throwing out numerous branches from the stem, 

 and to brutes poisonous, although to man an anti- 

 dote against the venom of serpents. Now this latter 



Anabasis, iv. 3. b Lib. xxi. c. 45. 



