RHODON WS*, signifying ` rose,' occurs only in the apocryphal books of Ecclesiasticus and the Book of Wisdom (Ecclus. xxiv. 14 ; xxxix.
; I. 8 ; Wisdom xi. 8).
The rose, though so seldom referred to in the writings of the Jews, is indigenous in some parts of Palestine (see Monro, as quoted by Kitto in the Physfral History of Palestine ; Rosenmiiller, Bib.
p. 144, E. T.) Burckhardt was struck with the number of rose-trees which he found among the ruins of Bozra beyond the Jordan. That the rose was cultivated in Damascus is well known ; indeed, one species is named Rosa Daniascena from being supposed to be indigenous there (Kitto, c., p. cclxxxiv.) It is possible, however, that the common rose may not he the plant meant in the above passages of Ecclesiasticus, and that the name rhodox may have been used in a general sense, so as to include some rose-like plants. We have an instance of this, indeed, in the oleander, of which rhododen dron, or rose-tree, was one of the ancient names, and rhododaphne another. The former name is now applied to a very different genus of plants, but laurier-rose, the French translation of rhododaphne, is still the common name in France of the plant which used to be called rose-bay in this country, but which is now commonly called oleander. Its
long and narrow leaves are like some kinds of wil lows, and in their hue and leathery consistence have some resemblance to the bay-tree, while in its rich inflorescence it may most aptly be compared to the rose. The oleander is well known to be common in the south of Europe, by the sides of rivers and torrents ; also in Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, and the north of India ; and nothing can be conceived more beautiful than the rivulets at the foot of the mountains, with their banks lined with thickets of oleanders, crowned with large bunches of roseate coloured flowers. Most travel lers in Palestine have been struck with the beauty of this plant. Such a plant could hardly escape reference, and therefore we are inclined to think that it is alluded to in the book of Ecclesiasticus by the name )568ov. If this should not be con sidered sufficiently near to rhododaphne and rhodo dendron, we may state, that in Arabic writers on Materia Medico. rodyon is given as the Syrian name of tbe oleander.—J. F. R.