SECTION I. 

 AROMATIC PLANTS. 



CAMPHOR. 



THIS shrub was formerly considered as a species of privet, to 

 which it has, indeed, many relations ; but difference in the parts of 

 fructification has determined botanists to make a distinct genus of 

 it, to which Linneus has given the name of lawsonia, and to that 

 species we are describing, lawsonia inermis. Its Arabic name is 

 henna; and with the article, al-henna. 



The al-henna is mentioned in Cant. i. 14, and iv. 13, as a per- 

 fume ; in the former passage notice is taken of its clusters. Dr. 

 Shaw describes it as a beautiful odoriferous plant, which grows ten 

 or twelve feet high, putting out its little flowers in clusters, which 

 yield a most grateful smell, like camphor. But the fullest descrip- 

 tion of the al-henna is that furnished by Sonnini, from whom we 

 make the following extracts. 



* The henna is a tall shrub, endlessly multiplied in Egypt ; the 

 leaves are of a lengthened oval form, opposed to each other, and of 

 a faint green color. The flowers grow at the extremity of the 

 branches, in long and tufted boquets; the smaller ramifications 

 which support them are red, and likewise opposite ; from the arm- 

 pit cavity springs a small leaf almost round, but terminating in a 

 point ; the corolla is formed of four petals, curling up, and of a light 

 yellow. Between each petal are two white stamina with a yellow 

 summit; there is only one white pistil. The pedicle, reddish at its 

 issuing from the bough, dies away into a faint green. The calix is 

 cut into four pieces, of a tender green up toward their extremity, 

 which is reddish. The fruit or berry is a green capsule, previous 

 to its maturity ; it assumes a red tint as it ripens, and becomes 

 brown when it is dried ; it is divided into four compartments, in 

 which are enclosed the seeds, triangular and brown-colored. The 

 bark of the stem and of the branches is of a deep grey, and the 

 wood has, internally, a light cast of yellow. Though its figure has 

 been already published in several books on natural history, it has 

 not been faithfully represented in any one, or with such exactness 

 of detail, as in the drawing which I had taken of it at Rosettn. 



4 In truth, this is one of the plants the most grateful to both the 

 sight and the smell. The gently deepish color of its bark, the light 

 green of its foliage, the softened mixture of white and yellow with 

 which the flowers, collected into long clusters like the lilach, are 



