120 THE TREES AND SHRUBS [LECT. 



of the aroma so remarkable in certain tropical 

 species of the same family, namely, in the Cinna- 

 mon and Cassia, plants noticed by Theophrastus 

 and Pliny v , but not as occurring in Europe. 



The Bay Laurel itself has been regarded by some 

 as a questionable native of Europe, and even Pliny 

 seems to speak of it as though it were of foreign 

 extraction, when he alludes to the care with which 

 it was preserved, as was the case in the villa of the 

 Caesars x . 



But this was an exceptional case, arising from 

 the veneration felt for that particular branch of 

 Laurel, which, as the story goes, was held in the 

 beak of the hen, that an eagle had let fall from 

 a loft unhurt into the lap of the Empress Livia ; 

 and at any rate the discovery of this plant amongst 

 the Tuffs of Castelnau, in Provence, as stated by 

 M. Planchon in a late work on the subject, proves 

 that it existed antecedently to man in the south 

 of France. 



The crackling which takes place when the leaves 

 are put into the fire, arising from its oil becoming 

 volatilized, and bursting the walls of the cells 

 within which it had been imprisoned, was regarded 

 by the Romans with superstitious fear, and deterred 

 them from applying the shrub to profane purposes, 

 or even from using it for fires at the altars. See 

 Pliny, lib. xv. 40. 



The Bay was called the barren Laurel, as the 

 male and female flowers are on separate trees. 



T Lib. xv. c. 39. * Pliny, lib. xv. c. 40. 



