The Bay has had ascribed to it the property of resisting 

 lightning: 



There bays still grow, (by thunder not struck down,) 

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



W. Browne. 



Low at your sacred feet our poor muse lays 

 Her, and her thunder-fearless bays. 



Beaumont fy Fletcher. 



The Lauras JVo&iZts, or Sweet Bay, is decided to be 

 the Daphne of Dioscorides; and, consequently, the classical 

 Laurel of the ancients. It is still called by the same name 

 among the modern Greeks. It is a native of Asia and Eu- 

 rope. There are many species of it, some of them indigenous 

 in America. 



The L. Nobttis is a tree of slow growth. Leaves stalk- 

 ed, lanceolate, veiny, finely reticulated, evergreen, aromatic: 

 flowers four-cleft, dioecious, in short axillary clusters, of a 

 pale yellow, borne only by old trees: no calyx. 



The Laurel only to adorn 

 The conqueror, and the poet. 



Drayton. 



The Laurel meed of mighty conquerors, 



And poets sage. Spencer's Fairy Queen. 



The triumphal crown of the Romans, was made of 

 branches of Laurel, or Bay tree, and given to a General who 

 had gained a battle, or conquered a province, and who was 

 worthy of the honour of a triumph: 



Unchallenged, let the warrior wear 



The Laurel in his gory hair. J. JET. Wiffin. 



Triumphant Laurels seem to grow 



No where so green as on his brow. Butler. 



In the genus Laurus, are found the Cinnamon tree, or 

 L. Cinnamonum, whose bark furnishes the spicy aromatic 

 Cinnamon of our shops. It is a native of Ceylon, an island 

 of the East Indies. 



The L. Camphora, or Japan Camphor tree, of this ge- 

 nus, is that from which the best camphor is procured. This 

 is found in perpendicular veins, near the centre of the tree, or 

 concreted in the knots of the wood. There is a grosser sort 

 prepared from the roots, which is afterwards refined by a 

 chemical process, into the transparent resin used in medicine. 

 The Camphor tree, in its general character, is nearly related 

 to the Red Bay of America; so similar in appearance, that, 

 at a little distance, they are easily confounded. 



The L. Cassia, or Cassia-bark tree, celebrated from all 

 antiquity, belongs to this family: native, also, of the East In- 

 dies. It is noticed in the Old Testament, Ps. xiv. 7, 8. It 

 resembles the Cinnamon in its aromatic, fragrant bark. 



L. Sassafras, American Sassafras tree, is also of this 

 genus. It was among the first trees of America which be- 

 came known to the Europeans, on account of its medicinal 

 virtues. 



L. Caroliniensis, American Red Bay, is another spe- 

 cies, abundant in the Southern States, where it attains the 

 height of from sixty to seventy feet, and from fifteen to twen- 

 ty inches in diameter. The leaves are about six inches long, 

 alternate, oval-acuminate, whitish, or glaucous, on the lower 

 surface, and evergreen. They resemble, in odour, those of 

 the Sweet Bay, L. Nobilis, and may be employed in cooke- 

 ry. The fruit, or seed, is very similar to those of the Sassa- 

 fras, of a dark blue colour. 



BELVIDERE. 



Scoparia. Dulcis. 

 Jl. Veronica. 



Veronica, an old but not classical name. Its common 

 etymology is between the Greek and Latin, from Verus, or 

 rather Vera, true, and the Greek sixn,./, a figure; and this, 

 illiterate and barbarous as it is, has the sanction of the super- 

 stitious legend of St. Veronica, whose handkerchief is re- 

 corded to have received the impression of our Saviour's face, 

 as he used it in bearing his cross to the place of crucifixion. 



Veronica is abbreviated from Vericonica, of Vera-icon 

 q. d. true image. Veronicas, in commerce, are imitations of 

 that celebrated original one, preserved with great veneration 

 at St. Peter's, in Rome; and imagined, by some, to be the 

 handkerchief laid over our Saviour's face in the sepulchre. 



Ambrosinus says, the word Veronica is German, and ori- 

 ginated in the druggists' shops of that country. He favours 

 the idea of its being corrupted from Vetonica, our Betonica, 

 or Betony. 



Belvidere, E., from the Latin bellus, fine, and video, to 

 see. 



Scoparia, from the Latin Scopse, a broom, because the 

 plant is used in the West Indies for making brooms. 



Scoparia Dulcis, Sweet Scoparia. The leaves have a 

 sweet taste like liquorice, whence its name of Wild Liquor- 

 ice, or Sweet Weed, by which it is known in Jamaica. 

 Sloane says, that three spoonfulls of the expressed juice of 

 these leaves, taken evening and morning, for three days, is 

 counted an infallible remedy for any cough. It has long been 

 known in our green-houses as an annual of no great beauty. 

 It blossoms throughout the summer: the stem is very bushy, 

 angular: leaves stalked, an inch long, light green, smooth, 

 coarsely and bluntly serrated, tapering at the base: flowers 

 small, white: corolla wheel-shaped, deeply four-cleft; nume- 

 rous axillary, solitary, on short slender stalks: calyx in four 

 deep equal segments. 



BIRD'S-FOOT TREFOIL. 



Lotus. 

 (See Lotos.) 



Lotus, or Lotos, a name applied to several herbaceous 

 plants, essential to the maintenance of domestic cattle in 

 countries sparingly furnished with grass. 

 For Trefoil, see clover. 



There are several species of the Bird's-foot trefoil noticed 

 under the article Lotus. The square podded Lotus sili- 

 quosus, with large lemon-coloured flowers once cultivated 

 for the pods as a vegetable; and, latterly, for its flowers. 

 Roots perennial. 



