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admiturt ; but I rather think thai an epithet 

 applied to the tree in general, is more likely 

 to have been given from its general appear- 

 ance, than from a particular part less apparent, 

 and often entirely hidden. Many plants point 

 their leaves downwards, as the lilac, chestnut, 

 "Portugal laurel, &c; and whoever compares 

 the arbutus and the Portugal laurel, in both 

 of which the leaves are serrated, will find how 

 strongly the epithet horrens applies to the 

 former. 



In the Uelphin edition the arbutus is sup- 

 posed to be called horrida, quia raris est 

 foliis ; but nothing can be less thin of leaves 

 than the frondentia arbuta- (as Virgil calls 

 them in another place) when in a flourishing 

 state. This idea, I think, is not unlikely to 

 tiave been adopted from a verse in the seventh 

 eclogue, rata tegit arbutus umbra, which in 

 the same edition is interpreted raris inumbrat 

 Joliis ; but surely if rara do mean thin, as 

 lYlartyn has also interpreted it, nothing can 

 less accord with tegit, and with the shepherd's 

 request, solstitium pecori defendite. As the 

 meaning of the word rara in this pas-sage has 

 been a good deal canvassed, I hope I may be 

 indulged in following the train of criticism 

 which has thus incidentally offered itself. 

 The learned and highly distinguished com- 

 mentator whom I have lately mentioned, in 

 speaking of this passage says, rara vero umbra. 



