54 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



resisting contagion, that during a raging pestilence Clau- 

 dius was advised by his physicians to remove his court to 

 Laurentium on that account. It was also supposed to 

 resist lightning, of which Tiberius was very fearful, and it 

 is said, that to avoid it he would creep under his bed, and 

 shade his head with the boughs. 



Mr. L. Hunt alludes to this power in the Bay, in his 

 Descent of Liberty : 



" Long have you my laurels worn. 

 And though some under leaves be torn 

 Here and there, yet what remains 

 Still its pointed green retains. 

 And still an easy shade supplies 

 To your calm-kept watchful eyes. 

 Only would you keep it brightening. 

 And its power to shake the lightning. 

 Harmless down its glossy ears. 

 Suffer not so many years 

 To try what they can bend and spoil. 

 But oftener in its native soil 

 Let the returning slip renew 

 Its upward sap and equal hue ; 

 And wear it then with glory shaded. 

 Till the spent earth itself be faded." 



W. Browne tells us also, that " Baies being the ma- 

 terials of poets' ghirlands, are supposed not subject to any 

 hurt of Jupiter's thunderbolts, as other trees are." — (See 

 note to page 8, vol. i.). 



" Where bayes still grow (by thunder not struck down). 

 The victor's garland and the poet's crown." 



(See W. Browne's Poems, vol. iii.) 



It is remarkable that this beautiful tree, which is hardy, 

 handsome, sweet, and an evergreen, to say nothing of classi- 

 cal associations, is so seldom and so sparingly cultivated in 

 this country. Evelyn tells us " that some Bay-trees were 

 sent from Flanders with stems so even and upright, and 

 with heads so round, full, and flourishing, that one of them 



