228 CLASS ENNEANDRIA. 



If its branches were carried among contending armies it was 

 a signal for the cessation of arms. Poets crowned with laurel 

 were called laureates. Camphor is the produce of the laurus 

 camphora, a large tree which grows in Japan : it is said that a 

 species of this plant has been discovered in Georgia. " The 

 LAURUS cinnamomum is a tree which grows to the height of 

 twenty feet ; it sends out numerous branches which are crown- 

 ed with a smooth bark. The leaves are of a bright green, 

 standing in opposite pairs. The petals are six, of a greenish 

 white colour. The fruit is a pulpy pericarp enclosing a nut. 

 This tree is a native of Ceylon, where it grows very common 

 in the woods and hedges. The imported cinnamon is the inner 

 bark (liber) of the tree ; it is remarkable that the leaves, fruit 

 and root all yield oil of very different qualities. That produ- 

 ced from the leaves is called the oil of cloves ; that obtained 

 from the fruit is of a thick consistence, very fragrant, and is 

 made into candles for the use of the king ; the bark of the roots 

 affords an aromatic oil called the oil of camphor. " The Sas- 

 safras tree (laurus sassafras) is a native American plant ; when 

 first introduced into Europe, it sold for a great price, the oil 

 being highly valued for medicinal uses. It grows on the bor- 

 ders of streams and in woods ; it is often no larger than a 

 shrub ; its flowers are yellow, its fruit blue berries. The LAU- 

 BUS benzoin has scarlet berries, and is an aromatic plant."* 



Fig. 113, a, represents a flower of the Butomus (flowering 

 rush), which belongs to the class and order we are now con- 

 sidering. 



The Second Order contains no remarkable plants. 



Trigynia. 



The Third Order presents us with but one genus, which of 

 itself renders the order important ; it is the Rhubarb (Rheum) : 

 in one species the RHEUM tartaricum; the leaves are acid, and 

 on this account, when young, are used for making pies ; this is 

 a native of Tartary, but now common in our gardens. The 

 RHEUM palmatum is the plant which produces the medicinal 

 rhubarb ; this is obtained from the roots, which are thick, fleshy 

 and yellow. This plant is cultivated in England, and is remark- 

 able for the rapidity of its growth. An English writer* asserts 

 that its stem has been known to grow more than eleven feet in 

 three months ; that some of its leaves were five feet in circum- 

 ference ; that the root also grows to a great size ; and that some 

 had been carried to England which weighed more than seventy 

 pounds. 



* Woodville. 



Order Trigynia Different species of Rhubarb. 



