106 



BAY. LAURUS NOB1LIS. 



Natural order ^ Holoracece ; Lauri, Juss. A 

 genus of the Enneandria Monogynia class. 



THIS plant, the laurel of antiquity, is a na- 

 tive of classical ground. The Greeks called 

 it Aft'^ Daphne, from SiaQdvy on account of 

 the crackling noise it makes while burning. 

 Fable informs us, that our sweet bay owes 

 both its origin and its name to Daphne, the 

 chaste daughter of Peneus, deity of a river so 

 named in Thessaly, whose banks are lined 

 with these trees. The mythologists tell us, 

 that the fair Daphne, flying from the embrace 

 of Phoebus, who had near overtaken her, 



" Cast a mournful look 



Upon the streams of her paternal brook ; 



* Oh, help,' she cried, ' in this extremest need ! 



If water gods are deities indeed: 



Gape earth, and this unhappy wretch intomb ; 



Or change my form, whence all my sorrows come/ 



Scarce had she fmish'd, when her feet she found 



Benumb'd with cold, and fastened to the ground : 



A filmy rind about her body grows ; 



Her hair to leaves, her arms extend to boughs : 



The nymph is all into a laurel gone ; 



The smoothness of her skin remains alone." 



