Flora Medica

Bot. Mag. t. 433. Subalpine districts of Caucasus, common inbeechwoods and oakwoods. Georgia, Asia Minor.A hairy deciduous shrub, 3 or 4 feet high, tolerably erect, but muchbranched ;with a pale brown deciduous bark, and leaves clusteredabout the extremities of the branches. Leaves appearing about thesame time as the flowers, oblong-lanceolate, acute, very much wrinkled,thin and papery, ciliated, roughish on the upper side, smooth underneath.Flowers in terminal cymes, 20 or more together, about as longas the rough hairy stalks. Sepals linear-oblong, hairy. Corolla brightyellow, infundibuliform, downy, with a wide oblique limb, the segmentsof which are ovate, acute, reflexed at the edges. Stamens 5, hairy atthe base above the middle, about as long as the corolla. Dioscoridesasserted that the honey collected about Heraclea in Pontus producedalienation of mind with profuse perspiration ;and it has been believedthat the pestilence which attacked the soldiers of Xenophon in thefamous retreat of the 10,000 was caused by the quantity of this honeythen eaten. Tournefort ascribed the poison to the flowers of Rhododendronponticum and Azalea pontica. But Pallas is of opinion thatthe latter alone was the cause. He says that the effects of the Euxinehoney are like those of Lolium temulentum and occur in a countrywhere no Rhododendron grows. The natives are well aware of thedeleterious qualities of the plant, and it is related that goats whichbrowse on the leaves, before the pastures are green, suffer in consequence,and moreover that cattle and sheep perish.LEDUM.Calyx minute, 4-toothed. Petals 5, spreading. Stamens5-10, exserted; anthers opening by 2 pores at the apex. Capsulesovate, 5-celled, 5-valved, stalked, dehiscing at the base.Seeds winged at both ends.Pallas.780. L. latifolium Ait, Kew. ii. 65. ic. Jacq. rar. iii. t. 464.Willd. sp. pi.ii. 602. Torrey fl. i. 437. L. gronlandicumRetz. prodr. scand. ii. 493. Sphagnous swamps in various partsof the United States, Hudson's Bay, Labrador, Newfoundland,Greenland.A small evergreen shrub. Stem irregularly branched ; brancheswoolly. Leaves alternate, subsessile, about 2 inches long, and from -JtoJ an inch broad, obtuse, covered on the under surface with a denseferruginous wool ; margin folded in. Flowers large, in dense terminalcorymbs; pedicels filiform, pubescent. Calyx very minute. Corollawhite ; petals obovate, obtuse. Stamens about as long as the corolla ;filaments slender, smooth ;anthers small, opening by two simple terminalpores. Ovary roundish; style straight, about as long as thestamens ; stigma small, obtuse. Capsule ovate-oblong, subpubescent ;valves separating at the base, with the margins inflexed and connivent ;receptacles linear, extending into the cells of the capsule. Seedsminute, terminating in a membrane at each extremity. Torrey. Theleaves infused in beer render it unusually heady, producing headach,nausea, and even delirium. They have nevertheless been used, it issaid, with advantage in tertian agues, dysentery and diarrhoea.379