52 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



thinks of the victorious general returning in triumph to 

 his country, amid the shouts of an assembled populace ; the 

 prince, of imperial Caesar ; the poet and the man of taste, 

 see Petrarch crowned in the Capitol. Women, who are 

 enthusiastic admirers of genius in any shape, think of all 

 these by turns, and almost wonder how Daphne could 

 have had the heart to run so fast from that most godlike 

 of all heathen gods, Apollo. 



It is said, that turning a deaf ear to the eloquent plead- 

 ings of the enamoured god, she fled, to escape his con- 

 tinued importunities : he pursued, and Daphne, fearful of 

 being caught, entreated the assistance of the gods, who 

 changed her into a laurel. Apollo crowned his head with 

 its leaves, and commanded that the tree should be ever 

 after held sacred to his divinity. Thus it is the true in- 

 heritance of the poet ; but when bestowed upon the con- 

 queror, is only to be considered as an acknowledgment 

 that he deserves immortality from Apollo's children. 



Spenser, indignant at the slight shown to his illustrious 

 father, speaks in a vindictive strain of the fair Daphne : 



" Proud Daphne, scorning Phoebus' lovely fire, 



On the Thessalian shore from him did flee ; 

 For which the gods, in their revengeful ire, 

 Did her transform into a laurel-tree." 



SPENSER'S SONNETS. 



This noble tree has often been confounded with the 

 common laurel, which is of quite a different genus, bearing 

 the botanical name of prunus laurocerasus. The Bay was 

 formerly called Laurel, and the fruit only named Bayes ; 

 this has probably occasioned the mistake. The word 

 Bay, indeed, is probably derived from Bacca, the name of 

 the berry. 



Thomson, as if resolved to have the right laurel at any 

 rate, makes use of both i 



