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RHODODENDRON. 
And rampant nettles lift the spiry head. 
BLOOMFIELD. 
Some so like to thorns and nettles live, 
That none for them can, when they perish, grieve. 
WALLER. 
THE RHODODENDRON. 
These purple flowers abound in a poisonous honey, and 
have hence been made emblematical of the dangers that 
lurk about the imperial purple. 
O’er pine-clad hills, and dusky plains, 
In silent state rhodendron reigns, 
And spreads, in beauty’s softest blooms, 
Her purple glories through the glooms. 
SHAW. 
Ev’n as those bees of Trebizond, — 
Which from the sunniest flowers that clad 
With their pure smile the garden round, 
Draw venom forth that drives men mad. 
T. MOORE. 
