154 LETTER XL. 



because an aromatic principle, of an analogous kind, 

 is found throughout the remainder. 



These useful and valuable plants are most curious 

 in their structure, as the Sweet Bay (Laurus nobilis) 

 will shew you. It is, as you are aware, a hardy ever- 

 green bush, whose leaves, when bruised, give out a 

 grateful spicy odour, and which are in consequence 

 extensively used in making pastiles and sweetmeats. 

 It grows wild in the south and middle of Europe, 

 especially in France and Italy, where it is a great 

 ornament of scenery. 



The flowers break out of little brown scaly balls, 

 in the axils of the leaves (Plale XLI. ^.Jiff. 1.), are 

 of a pale cream colour, and have the following struc- 

 ture. The calyx is divided into four deep lobes, 

 which spring from the top of a hairy stalk (Jig. 2. & 

 4.). There are no petals. Some flowers are sterile, 

 some fertile. The sterile flowers (Jig. 2.) contain 

 eight stamens of a most singular nature ; each has a 

 flat, linear filament, with a stalked, kidney-shaped 

 gland, growing from each side near the base (Jig. 3. 

 c), and a two-celled anther, the valves of which sepa- 

 rate from their cells, like those of the Barberry (page 

 12.), and curve back by a sort of hinge at the upper 

 end of each cell. It is found by the structure of other 

 genera, that the kidney-shaped glands are abortive 

 stamens ; consequently, in this apparently simple flower, 

 there is an irregularity of a very extensive kind, four 

 petals and sixteen stamens being either abortive or 

 rudimentary, as is expressed by the following scheme.* 



* Sec page 1 32. 



