BOOK XV. xxxix. 129-132 



the royal laurel, which has begun to be called the 

 Augusta laurel, a very large tree with a very large 

 leaf and berries without any rough taste. Some say 

 that the royal laurel and the Augusta are not tlie 

 same, and make out the royal to be a special kind, 

 with longer and broader leaves. The same persons 

 place in another class, under the name of bacaha, the 

 iaurel which is the commonest of all and bears the 

 largest number of berries, but much to my surprise 

 give the name of triumphal laurel to one that has no 

 berries, and say that this is the one used by persons 

 celebrating a triumph— unless the use of it began 

 with his late Majesty Augustus, as we shall show, as 

 sprung from the laurel which was sent down to him 

 from heaven, which was a very low growing tree with 

 a short, crinkled leaf, and very rarely met with. In 

 ornamental gardening there is also the Thasos laurel, 

 which has a tiny leafy fringe as it were growing out 

 of the middle of the leaf, and the gelded laurel, with- 

 out this fringe, which is remarkably able to stand 

 lack of sun and which consequently fills the ground 

 with its shoots in however shady a place. There is 

 also the ground laurel, a shrub that grows wild, and 

 Alexandrine laurel, which some call Idaean, others 

 hypoglottion,« others Danae, others carpophyllon,* 

 others hypelates.*^ This laurel spreads out branches 9 

 inches long from its root, and is useful for making 

 wreaths ; the leaf is more pointed than that of the 

 myrtle, and softer, brighter in colour and larger; the 

 seed, which lies between the leaves, is red; it grow^s 

 in great abundance on Mount Ida and in the vicinity 

 of Heraclea in Pontus, and it only occurs in mountain 

 districts. Also the class of laurel called daphnoides 

 is involved in a competition of nomenclature, as some 



VOL. IV. N 377 



