XX. 9. THE ROSE BAY. 383 
XX. 9. THE ROSE BAY. RHODODE'NDRON. UL. 
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 Europeand 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. arbd- 
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 
alltimes. ‘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.”’— Wallich, 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, A. Pénticum, 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 Azdlea Péntica, which, he says, grows plen- 
tifully among the bushes of rhododendron, and which is known 
to render honey deleterious. The Purple Rose Bay, &. 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- 
