CLASS XII. 



TWENTY STAMINA. 



This Class has three Orders. 



This class is said to have twenty Stamina, but the 

 precision of the number is not of so much importance 

 as their insertion into the Calyx, which, though an ad- 

 ditional circumstance, is essential to the character oi 

 the Class. a 



CHERRY LAUREL is a native of the Levant, orier t. 

 and of Persia, and was first cultivated in Europe in 

 1576. In England it was a scarce plant in the reign 

 of Charles I. and a merchant, who possessed one in 

 his garden at Highgate, in the year ld2Q, defended it 

 every winter from the severity of the cold by covering 

 it with a blanket} but this plant is now not generally 

 injured by the severity of our climate, and is so common 

 every where, that the aid of reflection is necessary to 

 suppose it ever to have been rare. It blossoms in 

 April, and in the autumn produces a black berry some- 

 what like a cherry or small plum ; hence it has been 

 classed by Linnaeus with the genus Prunus, under 



* It is a curious fact in nature, that whenever Stamina are 

 inserted into the Calyx, whether the number be few or many, 

 the fruit has been found to be invariably wholesome. 

 D 



