208 Rhodora [October 



work in 1824, and in the 3rd edition in 1840; also in Bigelow's Medi- 

 cal Botany, vol. ii. pp. 07-70, where it is called an aromatic tonic. 



Stephen Elliott in his Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and 

 Georgia; vol. ii. p. 37 (1S21), says : " This is probably the most fragrant 

 plant of our forests. It grows in great profusion along the margin 

 of the rich swamps which border our rivers, and in the morning and 

 evening during the period of its flowering, the atmosphere of our 

 streams is often literally perfumed with its fragrance." 



"Grows in swamps and wet soils, though extremely abundant in the 

 low country of Carolina — it is very rarely found upon the islands 

 which border the sea coasts." 



Darlington in his classical Flora (Vstrica, ed. 3, p. S (1853), made 

 the following comments upon the species: "This delightful little tree, 

 though abundant in the swamps of New Castle County, on the south 

 of us, is rare in Chester County." 



Dr. Francis Peyre Porcher in his Resources of the Southern Fields 

 and Forests (Charleston, So. Car., 1803), pp. 30-37, speaks almost 

 entirely of its pharmaceutical value in many cases of a typhoidal 

 character: "The bark of the root, according to Griffith, was employed 

 by the Indians to fulfil a variety of indications; the warm decoction 

 acts as a gentle laxative, and subsequently as a sudorific, whilst the 

 cold decoction, powder of, or tincture, is tonic. ... It is supposed by 

 many residing in the lower portions of this state that this tree pre- 

 vents the water of bogs and galls from generating malaria. It cer- 

 tainly seems that the water is much clearer in which the bay tree 

 grows." 



George B. Emerson in his Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts, ed. 

 2 (1N7">) and without change ed. 3 (1878), p. 003, says, 



" A sheltered swamp near Cape Ann, not far from the sea, is thought 

 to be the most northern habitation of this plant, and until lately was 

 supposed to be the only one in Massachusetts. It has recently been 

 found at the distance of some miles, in another swamp, in the midst 

 of deep woods in Essex." 



At this point there is a reference to the following foot-note. 



"It is said to have been found, in a single spot, in the county of 

 York, Maine." 



No specimen, however, from Maine exists in any herbarium to my 

 knowledge. The text continues: "From these situations it will soon 

 be completely extirpated. The fragrant flowers and even the leaves 

 are in such request, that, early in the flowering season, numbers of 



