316 NATURAL HISTORY. 



fleshy, branching, and yellow, furnishes the well-known 

 medicine of the shops. Very medicinal as brought from 

 its native land, but, transplanted into Europe and else- 

 where, deteriorates so much as to lose all its officinal 

 qualities. It has a powerful, disagreeably aromatic 

 odor; taste, nauseating and bitter. As the Chinese 

 rhubarb is supposed to lose much of its medicinal qual- 

 ity by being transported by sea, that brought by the 

 overland route is greatly preferable. The Monk's 

 Rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum) is the Pie Plant of 

 the garden, so commonly cultivated for its acid and es- 

 culent leaf-stalks. O- 



.FIFTY-THIRD FAMILY. LAURACEJE. AROMATIC 

 TREES OR SHRUBS. The tropical plants of this order, 

 some of which contain the aromatic principle in their 

 leaves, others in the bark, are interesting. 



The Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis). Leaves oblong, 

 lanceolate, leathery, veined and evergreen. Flowers 

 hanging in umbelliferous tufts, yellowish-white ; fruit or 

 berries dark green, and egg-shaped. Found in all the 

 countries bordering on the Mediterranean, where it is 

 only a shrub ; farther south it grows into a tree thirty 

 feet in height. Leaves have an aromatic odor and spicy 

 taste; contains a bitter principle, which, extracted, is 

 considered a good stomachic. The berries yield a 

 species of camphorated oil, which is used in medicine. 

 The bay-laurel, famed from the earliest days of mythology, 

 was dedicated to Apollo ; conqueror and poets received a 

 crown made of the leaves, which was considered the high- 

 est mark of distinction that could be bestowed. $ . 



The Cinnamon Tree (Laurus cinnamomum). Branch- 

 es and leaf-stalks are naked and angular ; leaves ovate, 

 oblong, gradually tapering to a point ; flowers yellowish- 



