''hap, 33.] 
THE RHODOBENDROK. 
373 
' case also with the vaccinium,^^ grown in Italy for drugging our 
slaves,^^ and in Gaul for the purpose of dyeing the garments of 
slaves a purple colour. All those trees^^ which are common 
j to the mountains and the plains, grow to a larger size, and are 
I of more comely appearance when grown on the plains, while 
those found on the mountains have a better wood and more 
finely veined, with the exception of the apple and the pear. 
I CHAP. 32. (19.) DIVTSIOIT OF TREES ITfTO YARTOTTS SPECIES. 
In addition to these particulars, some of the trees lose their 
leaves, while others, again, are evergreens. Eefore, however, 
we treat of this distinction, it will be necessary first to touch 
upon another. There are some trees that are altogether of a 
wild, nature, while there are others, again, that are more 
civilized, such being the names^^ by which man has thought 
fit to distinguish the trees. Indeed, these last, which by their 
fruits or some other beneficial property, or else by the shade 
which they afibrd, show themselves the benefactors of man, 
are not inappropriately called civilized trees. 
CHAP. 33. (20.) TREES WHICH 1)0 NOT LOSE THEIR FOLIAGE. 
THE RHODODENDRON. TREES WHICH DO NOT LOSE THE WHOLE 
OF THEIR FOLIAGE. PLACES IN WHICH THERE ARE NO TREES. 
Belonging to this last class, there are the following trees 
which do not lose their leaves : the olive, the laurel, the 
palm, the myrtle, the cypress, the pine, the ivy, the rhodo- 
dendron,^' and, although it may be rather called a herb than a 
tree, the savin.^^ The rhododendron, as its name indicates, 
comes from Greece. By some it is known as the nerium,'^^ 
and by others as the rhododaphne. It is an evergreen, bear- 
32 The Pruniis mahaleb, Desfontaines says ; but Fee identifies it with the 
black heath-berry, or whortle-berry, stiU called " vaciet " in France. It 
does not, however, grow, as Pliny says, in watery places, but in woods and 
on shrubby hills. ^ See B. xxi. c. 97. 
34 These observations, Fee says, are borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. 
Plant. B. iii. c. 4, and are founded on truth, 
35 " silvestres," and " urbaniores." 36 XJrbanae. 
3"'' The Nerion oleander of Linnseus ; the laurel- rose, or rose of St. An- 
thony of the French ; it has some distant resemblance to the olive-tree, 
but its leaf is that of the laurel, and its flower very similar to that of 
the rose. 
^6 See B. xxiv. c. 61. ^' Nerion" is the Greek name. 
