ALEXANDRIAN LAUREL. 



RUSCUS RACEMOSUS. 



SMILACEJE. DIOECIA SYNGENESIA. 



According to Miller, this genus is named Ruscus, from Rusticus, 

 because the countrymen in old times, " used to lay the leaves on 

 their bacon and hams to defend them from mice " It is called 

 Alexandrian Laurel, continues he, (for rather a curious reason) 

 because it is fit for making Laurel garlands ; and from one of the 

 species growing in Alexandria. 



THIS is an elegant shrub, as Rousseau justly terms it, 

 a beautiful evergreen ; and is, at full growth, about four 

 feet high : the leaves are of a lucid green, ending in acute 

 points, and placed alternately upon the branches, without 

 any foot-stalk. The flowers, of a greenish yellow, grow 

 in bunches at the ends of the branches, and are succeeded 

 by small red berries. 



It is a native of Portugal, and of the islands of the 

 Archipelago ; and was cultivated in the Chelsea Botanic 

 Garden, in the year 1739- 



It has been supposed to be the plant with which the 

 ancients crowned their victors; the same notion pre- 

 vailed of some other species of this genus, before this was 

 so well known, equally without foundation in both cases. 

 It is now well ascertained that the bay of the ancients 

 was the sweet bay, Laurus nobilis. 



