Chap. 39.] 



THE LATJKEL. 333 



Since his time, however, the varieties have considerably 

 augmented. There is the tinus 67 for instance, by some con- 

 sidered as a species of wild laurel, while others, again, rega-d 

 it as a tree of a separate class ; indeed, it does differ from ^the 

 laurel as to the colour, the berry being of an azure blue. The 

 royal 08 laurel, too, has since been added, which has of late 

 begun to be known as the " Augustan : " both the tree, as 

 well as the leaf, are of remarkable size, and the berries have 

 not the usual rough taste. Some say, however, that the royal 

 laurel and the Augustan are not the same tree, and make out 

 the former to be a peculiar kind, with a leaf both longer and 

 broader than that of the Augustan. The same authors, also, 

 make a peculiar species of the bacalia the commonest laurel 

 of all, and the one that bears the greatest number of berries. 

 With them, too, the barren laurel 69 is the laurel of the tri- 

 umphs, and they say that this is the one that is used by war- 

 riors when enjoying a triumph— a thing that surprises me 

 very much ; unless, indeed, the use of it was first introduced 

 by the late Emperor Augustus, and it is to be considered as 

 the progeny of that laurel, which, as we shall just now have 

 occasion to mention, was sent to him from heaven ; it being the 

 smallest of them all, with a crisped 70 short leaf, and very rarely 

 to be met with. 



In ornamental gardening we also find the taxa 71 employed, 

 with a small leaf sprouting from the middle of the leaf, and 

 forming a fringe, as it were, hanging from it ; the spadonia, 73 

 too, without this fringe, a tree that thrives remarkably well 

 in the shade : indeed, however dense the shade may be, it will 

 soon cover the spot with its shoots. There is the chamse- 

 daphne, 73 also, a shrub that grows wild ; the Alexandrian 74 



6' Or tine tree, the Viburnum tinus of Linnaeus, one of the caprifolia. 

 It is not reckoned as one of the laurels, though it has many of the same 

 characteristics. 68 Begia. " 



69 The barren laurel of the triumphs was the Laurus nobilis ot Linnaeus, 

 which has onlv male flowers. 



70 The Laurus vulgaris folio undulato of the Parisian Horhis, Fee says. 



71 Not a laurel, nor yet a dicotyledon, Fee says, but one of the Aspa- 

 ragea, probably the Buscus hypoglossum of Linnaeus, sometimes known, 

 however, as the Alexandrian laurel. 



" Or " eunuch" laurel ; "a variety, probably, of the Laurus nobilis. 



73 The " ground laurel :" according to Sprengel, this is the Buscus race- 

 mosus of Linnaeus. See B. xxiv. c. 81. 



7* From Alexandria in Troas : the Euscus hypophyllum of Linnaeus, it 

 is supposed. 



