CHAP, vi S Y L V A 311 



be rais'd here, (without sending beyond-sea for them) 

 were our gardeners as industrious to cultivate and 

 shape them : Some there are, who imagine them of 

 another species than our ordinary bay, but erroneously. 

 I wonder we plant not whole groves of them, and 

 abroad ; they being hardy enough, grow upright, and 

 would make a noble daphneon. The berries are emol- 

 lient, soveraign in affections of the nerves, collies, 

 gargarisms, baths, salves, and perfumes : Bay-leaves 

 dryed in a fire-pan, and reduc'd to a fine powder, as 

 much as will cover half a crown, being drank in 

 wine, seldom fail of curing an ague. And some have 

 us'd the leaves instead of cloves, imparting its relish 

 in sauce, especially of fish ; and the very dry sticks 

 of the tree, strew'd over with a little powder or dust 

 of sulphur, and vehemently rub'd against one another, 

 will immediately take fire; as will likewise the wood 

 of an old ivy ; nay, without any intentive addition, 

 by friction only. 



2 1 .Amongst other things, it has of old been observ'd 

 that the bay is ominous of some funest accident, if 

 that be so accounted which Suetonius (in Galba) 

 affirms to have happen 'd before the death of the 

 monster Nero, when these trees generally wither'd to 

 the very roots in a very mild winter: And much later, 

 that in the year 1629, when at Padoa, preceding a 

 great pestilence, almost all the bay-trees about that 

 famous University grew sick and perish'd: Certo quasi 

 praesagio (says my author) Apollinem musaque subse- 

 quenti anno urbe ilia bonarum liter arum domicilio exces suras. 

 But that this was extraordinary, we are told the 

 emperor Claudius upon occasion of a raging pestilence, 

 was by his physicians advis'd to remove his court to 

 Laurentium, the aromatick emissions of that tree 



