26 



L AU 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



L A U 



17. Laurus Leucoxylon. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, flat, 

 perennial ; racemes shorter than the leaves ; calices incras- 

 sated, warted. It is called Loblolly, White-wood, or White 

 Sweet-wood. Native of Jamaica. 



18. Laurus Membranacea. Leaves .oblong, acuminate, 

 veined, convex, coriaceous-membranaceous ; branches and ra- 

 cemes upright, shorter than the leaf. Native of Jamaica. 



19. Laurus Pateus. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, flat, mem- 

 branaceous ; racemes upright, diffused, longer than the leaves. 

 Native of Jamaica. 



20. Laurus Pendula. Leaves oblong, veined, membra- 

 naceous, perennial ; racemes loose ; fruits pendulous ; calices 

 deciduous. It grows twelve feet high. Native of Jamaica. 



21. Laurus Floribunda. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, flat, 

 membranaceous ; flowers raceme-panicled, loose, terminating. 

 Native of Jamaica. 



22. Laurus Lucida. Leaves oblong, serrate ; branchlets 

 in threes ; flowers axillary, solitary, subsessile. This is a 

 smooth tree, with round branches. Native of Japan. 



23. Laurus Umbellata. Leaves ovate, serrate ; branchlets 

 umbelled ; flowers in racemes. Stem shrubby, very much 

 branched. Native of Japan. 



24. Laurus JEstivalis ; Willow-leaved Bay. Leaves veined, 

 oblong-acuminate, annual, wrinkled underneath ; branches 

 superaxillary. Stalk shrubby, branching, eight to ten feet high ; 

 bark purple ; flowers white, six-petalled at the top of the 

 branches; followed by green berries inclosed in reddish cups. 

 Native of swampy lands in North America. It may be pro- 

 pagated by seeds, when they can be procured, and by layers, 

 which put out roots pretty freely. This, and the two follow- 

 ing, will live in the open air in England ; but the Sassafras 

 is often injured by very severe frosts, especially if it be in an 

 exposed situation ; therefore these plants should have a warm 

 situation, and a loose soil ; and in moist ground this will 

 thrive much better than in a dry soil. 



25. Laurus Benzoin ; Common Benjamin Tree. Leaves 

 nerveless, ovate, sharp at both ends, entire, annual. It rises 

 to the height of ten or twelve feet, dividing into many 

 branches ; flowers of a white herbaceous colour. Native of 

 Virginia. This tree has been confounded with the true Ben- 

 zoin tree ; for which see Styrax Benzoin. It may be propa- 

 gated by sowing the berries, which generally lie long in the 

 ground, so that, unless they are brought over in earth, they 

 often fail. It may also be increased by layers, which put 

 out roots freely when the young shoots are made choice of. 



26. Laurus Sassafras ; Sassafras Tree. Leaves entire, and 

 three-lobed. This is generally a shrub, about ten feet high, 

 though it sometimes grows into a large tree ; leaves of dif- 

 ferent shapes and sizes, on pretty long footstalks, of a lucid 

 green ; flowers three or four on each peduncle, small, yel- 

 low, or greenish white ; berry blue when ripe. It is said 

 that bedsteads made of the wood will never be infested 

 with bugs ; indeed Loureiro remarks, that it is very proper 

 for making cabinets in hot climates, because the smell is 

 disagreeable to insects. It is of a light and spongy texture, 

 has a fragrant smell, and a sweet aromatic taste. Both it 

 and the bark, which in America has been substituted for 

 spice, are much used in the materia medica. Sassafras is 

 used as a mild corroborant, diaphoretic, and sweetener, in 

 scorbutic, venereal, cachectic, and catarrhal disorders. Infu- 

 sions made in water, from the cortical or woody part rasped 

 or shaved, are commonly drank as a tea : and this, in some 

 constitutions, from its fragrance, is said to affect the head at 

 first, which inconvenience ceases on continuing its use a 

 little time. It is made an ingredient in several diet-drinks, 

 both empirical and such as are used in regular practice. 



It gives out its virtues both to spirit and water, but most 

 readily to the former. A decoction of Sassafras with sugar 

 was sold in coffee-houses at the end of the last century, under 

 the name of bochet: there has been a shop opened for the 

 sale of it in Fleet Street, under the name of saloop, for many 

 years past. Native of sandy soils in America. This tree 

 is commonly propagated by the berries brought over from 

 America. They often lie in the ground a whole year, and 

 sometimes two or three, if sown in spring, before they 

 grow; therefore the surest way of obtaining the plant is, 

 to get the berries put into a tub of earth soon after they are 

 ripe ; and as soon as they arrive, sow them on a bed of 

 light earth, putting them two inches in the ground. If the 

 spring be dry, water them often, and shade them from the 

 heat of the sun in the middle of the day. With this manage- 

 ment many of the plants will corne up the first season; but as 

 a great many of the berries will lie in the ground till the next 

 spring, so the bed should not be disturbed, but wait until 

 the season after, to see what will come up. The first winter 

 after the plants come up, they should be protected from the 

 frost, especially in the preceding autumn, for the first early 

 frost at that season is apt to pinch the shoots of these plants, 

 which when young are tender and full of sap, so will do 

 them more injury than the severe frost of the winter; for 

 when the extreme part of the shoots are killed, it greatly 

 affects the whole plant. When they have grown a year in 

 the seed-bed, they may be transplanted into the nursery, 

 where they may stand one or two years to acquire strength, 

 and may then be transplanted into the places where they are 

 to remain for good. Some of" them have been propagated by 

 layers, but they are commonly two and sometimes three years 

 before they put out roots, and will rarely take root at all 

 if they are not duly watered in dry weather. The Sassafras 

 makes a good appearance in summer, when fully clothed with 

 its large leaves, which being of different shapes, make an 

 agreeable variety with shrubs of the same growth. 



27. Laurus Involucrata. Leaves obovate ; umbels invo- 

 lucred ; branches watered by the fallen petioles. This tree is 

 a native of Tranquebar in the East Indies. 



28. Laurus Myrrha ; Myrrh Laurel. Leaves three-nerved, 

 ovate, with a long point; flowers heaped, sessile, axillary. 

 It is a small tree, five feet high, very much branched, with 

 an unarmed twisted trunk ; flowers white. The root is warm, 

 diuretic, emmenagogtie, antiputredinous, and anthelminthic. 

 A red oil expressed from the berries, and having the smell 

 and taste of the plant, is used by the Cochin-chinese in the itch, 

 wounds, pustules, and putrid ulcers, and against the worms 

 and insects that attack the human body. The whole plant 

 is extremly bitter, and has the taste and smell of Myrrh to 

 such a degree, that Loureiro suspects that it may be the plant 

 which affords the true Myrrh. Native of Cochin-china. 



29. Laurus Polyadelpha. Leaves obscurely three-nerved, 

 lanceolate ; flowers axillary, polyadelphous. This is a large 

 tree, with spreading boughs ; flowers reddish-white ; corolla 

 cup-shaped. Native of the mountains of Cochin-china. 



30. Laurus Curvifolia. Leaves obscurely three-nerved, 

 oblong, curved inwards ; racemes small, subterminating. 

 This also is a large tree, with spreading branches ; flowers 

 white. Native of mountainous woods in Cochin-china. 



31. Laurus Cubeba; White Laurel. Leaves nerveless, 

 veinless, lanceolate ; flowers heaped, peduncled. This is 

 a middle-sized and very branching tree. Corolla white. 

 The berries are globular; they are corroborant, cephalic, 

 stomachic, and carminative. A decoction of them is service- 

 able in vertigo, hysterics, palsy, &c. The bark has the same 

 qualities, but in an inferior degree. The natives use the 



