Sodom, APPLE OF

Sodom, APPLE OF, the name given to the fruit of a species of Solanum (q.v.). But it is possible that the true Apple of Sodom, or Mad Apple, of the shores of the Dead Sea, mentioned by Strabo, Tacitus, and Josephus, and described as beautiful to the eye, but filling the mouth with bitter ashes if tasted, is a kind of gall growing on dwarf oaks, and produced by a species of gall-insect.