iv.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 119 



The 'Arpatya^is of the Greek writers appears to 

 have been the Garden Orach, A. hortensis, an herba- 

 ceous species. 



POLYGONUM. 



Two species of shrubby Polygonum are noticed 

 by Sibthorp, but neither can be identified with any 

 ancient plants. 



LAURUS AND DAPHNE. 



The term Laurus was employed by the ancients 

 with the same degree of laxity as that in which 

 they indulged in the case of the Acanthus, the Acer, 

 and the like, just as that, with regard to the same 

 term, which is admitted into the popular phraseology 

 of the present day. 



We speak of the common Laurel, the Bay, the 

 Portugal, the Alexandrian, the Laurustinus, &c., 

 shrubs no farther related than in the one character 

 of being evergreen shrubs, applicable to the same 

 uses in ornamental gardening. 



In like manner Pliny enumerates the tinus, a 

 plant which must have been the Viburnum tinus, 

 the Laurustinus of the moderns, belonging to the 

 family Caprifoliacece , (although some, even in his 

 time, considered this as a tree of a separate class). 



Then follows the Royal Laurel, sacred to Apollo, 

 and known as the Augustan, being used in triumphs 

 to encircle the brow of the conqueror, which is 

 the Bay, or Laurus nobilis of Linnaeus, belonging to 

 the family of Laurinece, and possessing something 



