LETTER LVII. 



AROMATIC PLANTS — SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLATURE. 



Herb is a thorny tree, with narrow leaves, of a bluish 

 grey, which is called hippopMe. 



J. J. Kousseau relates that one day, as he was herborising on 

 the banks of the Isire, he ate some of the yellow fruits of this 

 tree. An advocate of Grenoble, who accompanied him, did 

 not dare to take the liberty of warning him that thege fruits 

 were supposed to be poisonous. — Happily they are not so. 



Almost all trees, almost all plants will have their share of 

 sun; all require air. The fragon, almost alone, is more 

 modest ; it is only under trees that it grows with vigour into 

 tufted bushes. The fragon, from a distance, has the appear- 

 ance of a myrtle, but each of its leaves is terminated by a 

 sharp point. In the spring its little flowers, green and violet, 

 do not bloom as other shrubs do, at the extremity of a pedun- 

 cle, but upon the leaves themselves. To these flowers suc- 

 ceed little green, round fruits. When winter arrives, the 

 fragon, which has remained green under the bare trees, is 

 covered all over with little red balls, as large as small cherries, 

 but of a coral red. 



