1304- ARBORETUM AND FRUT1CETUM. PART III. 



Commerced Statistics. Price of plants, in the London nurseries, Is. 6d. 

 each, and seeds 0*. a quart ; at Bollwyller, 2 francs ; and at New York, 

 25 cents. 



at 7. L. (J5.) -DiospY v nus Pers. The Diospyrus-Afre Laurel, or itoj/. 



Identification. Pers. Syn., 1. p. 450. ; Bot. Mag., 1. 1470. ; where Dr. Sims states that Persoon's epi- 

 thet 7Jiospyrus, is an abbreviation of Michaux's one of diospyroldes. 



Svnonumes. L. Euosmus Diospyrus Nutt. Gen., 1. p. 259. ; L. rfiospyruldes Michx. Fl. Bor. Amer., 

 1. p 243. ; ? L. melissffifblia Walt. Fl. Car., 134. Dr. Sims (Bot. Mag., 1. 1470.) states that he has 

 not much doubt that the L. melissa?f<Mia Walter is identical with this species ; and he adds that 

 Mr. Fraser, who was the friend of Walter, and editor of his work, always considered it as such, 

 and has remarked that " the leaves are not at all like those of the balm ; but it was, probably, the 

 scent, not the form, that suggested the appellation." 



Engravings. Bot Mag., 1. 1470. ; and our Jig. 1172. 



Spec. Char., fyc. Habit low, surculose, twiggy. Leaves oblong-oval and 

 entire, the under side veiny and pubescent, deciduous. Flower buds and 

 pedicels villous. Sexes dioecious. Fruit large. (Nutt. Gen., i. p. 259.) A 

 running twiggy shrub, 2 ft. or 3 ft. high, in its 

 native swamps, in Virginia and Carolina; intro- 

 duced in 1810. Leaves opaque, oblong-oval, at- 

 tenuated towards the base, entire, the under side 

 veiny and pubescent, deciduous. Scales of the 

 buds purple, villous. Younger branches villous. 

 Sexes dioecious. Flower buds and pedicels villous. 

 Flowers disposed in sessile umbeled groups, 3 5 

 in a group. Perfect stamens 9. Gland-like bodies 

 large, orange yellow. Fruit larger than that of 

 L. Benzoin, oblong-ovate, scarlet, upon thick and 

 distinct pedicels Cotyledons large, thick, oily, 

 attached by near their base to the remainder of the 



embryo. (Xutt. Gen., i. p. 259.) It is what may be C^fV'^^^ 1172 

 deemed the male sex that is represented in Sot. 

 Mag., t. 1470., and our^g. 1 172. ; and in the text of the Bot. Mag. is the 

 following interesting information by Dr. Sims, on the structure of its 

 flowers. There were 9 perfect stamens, and an imperfect ovary ; and 6 

 glands on short pedicels, resembling so many little yellow mushrooms, with 

 a warty pileus : the anthers had 2 cells each. {Bot. Mag.) L. Pseudo-Ben- 

 zoin Michx. is supposed by Dr. Sims (Bot. Mag., t. 1471.) to be either 

 identical with, or a slight variation from, this species. The only plant 

 which we have seen bearing the name of L. i)iospyrus is at White Knights, 

 where it so closely resembles L. Benzoin, as to leave no doubt in our 

 mind that Dr. Sims's conjecture was right. 



& 8. L. (B.) ^ESTIVA V LIS L. The summer Laurel, or Willow-leaved Bay. 



Identification. Lin. Sp., 529. ; Syst, 384. ; Mart. Mill, No. 24. ; Willd. Sp. PI., 2. p. 485. 

 Synonymes. L. enervia Mill. Diet., No. 8. ; L. Euosmus astivMis Nutt. Gen., 1. p. 259. ; Pond bush, 



Amer. ; Sommcr Lorbeer, Ger. 

 Engraving. Catesb. Car., 2. t. 28. 



Spec. Char., fyc. Leaves oblong-acuminate, entire, glabrous, veiny, deci- 

 duous. Flowers in umbels. Sexes polygamous. (Nutt. Gen.,\. p. 259.) 

 Dr. Sims has noted, incidentally, in the Bot. Mag., t. 1470., that there 

 are two different specimens of the L. aestivalis in the Banksian herbarium ; 

 that one of them, the flowering specimen from Jacquin's herbarium, is 

 evidently a specimen of the L.geniculata Bot. Mag., t. 1471.; and that the 

 other, in the leaves, is similar to the L. Z)iospyrus Bot. Mag., t. 1470. 

 Farther, Dr. Sims has noted, t. 1471., that it is not easy to say to which 

 species L. aestivalis really belongs, and that if Linnaeus had meant the cha- 

 racter of supra-axillary branches to describe that the buds are produced 

 below the branches, and not in the axils of them, it is as applicable to the 

 allied L. Z)iospyrus and L. geniculata. (Bot. Mag., t. 1470.) A shrub, 

 about 6ft. or 8ft. high, a native of Virginia, in the swamps which inter- 

 sect the pine barrens. Introduced in 1775. There was a plant in the 

 Horticultural Society's Garden, some years ago, which is since dead. 



