i cme ll ee A a Ee 
LAURUS NOBILIS. ORD. XL. Oleracea. 679 
calyx, and the glands, &c. correspond with the generi¢ description: 
the style of the female flowers is very short, and the germen 
becomes an oval berry, covered with a dark green rind, and 
separable into two lobes or cotyledons. 
This tree is a native of Italy, and other southern parts of Europe, 
and the first account we have of its cultivation in England is given 
by Turner in 1562;° it is a handsome evergreen, and now very 
common in the’ shrubberies and gardens of this country. The 
leaves and berries possess the same medicinal qualities, both 
having a sweet fragrant smell, and an aromatic astringent taste.“— 
The berries are imported from. the Streights, and are much 
stronger than the leaves. ‘ In distillation with water the. leaves 
yield.a small quantity of very fragrant essential oil: with rectified 
spirit they afford a moderately warm pungent extract. The berries 
yield a larger quantity of essential oil: they discover likewise a 
degree of unctuosity in the mouth, sive out to the press an almost 
senate fluid oily and_on being boiled in water a thicker butyra- 
ceous one, of a yellowish green colour, impregnated with the 
flavour of the berry.’"* 
> Turn. Herb. part 2. fol. 32. in Hort. Kew. cit. 
. © Lewis M. M. 982. 
4 Their spicy warmth has recommended them for culinary purposes, and in this 
way they were much used by the Romans, ‘¢‘ Apud veteres Romanos inter cibi 
condimenta in culinis frequenter adhibebantur, ut testatur Apicius Ceelius.” And 
the leaves both of this plant, and the common laurel, are frequently used in 
custards, &c. But the practice has by many been discontinued, since a recent 
and fatal proof of the poisonous qualities of the latter was made public. ‘To such 
we may observe, that the common laurel, or Pranus Lauro cerasus of Linnzus, 
differs very materially: from the plant here represented, both in its effects and in 
its botanical characters. The common sweet bay may be thus used not only with 
safety but with the advantage of assisting digestion: and it has even been thought 
to obviate the poisonous effects of the Jaurel: ** Aqua stillatitia Lauri, secundum 
Clar. Cantwell, antidotus est aque stillatitia Lauro cerasi,” (Hall. lc.) It may 
Be remarked, mUWEE: that the deleterious part of the Taurel is the essential oil 
which requires to be separated by distillation, in order to become an active poisor. 
