ALEXANDRIAN LAUREL. 



RUSCUS RACEMOSUS. 



SMILACEiE. DIGECIA SYNGENESIA. 



According to j\Iiiler, this genus is named RuscuSj from Rusticus, 

 because the countrymen in old times^ used to lay the leaves on 

 their bacon and hams to defend them from mice " It is called 

 Alexandrian Laurel, continues he, (for rather a curious reason) 

 because it is fit for making Laurel garlands ; and from one of the 

 species growing in Alexandria. 



This is an elegant shrub, as Rousseau justly terms it, — 

 a beautiful evergreen ; and is, at full grov/tli, about four 

 feet high : the leaves are of a lucid green, ending in acute 

 points, and placed alternately upon the branches, without 

 any foot-stalk. The flowers, of a greenish yellow, grow 

 in bunches at the ends of the branches, and are succeeded 

 by small red berries. 



It is a native of Portugal, and of the islands of the 

 Archipelago ; and was cultivated in the Chelsea Botanic 

 Garden, in the year 1739. 



It has been supposed to be the plant with which the 

 ancients crowned their victors; the sam.e notion pre- 

 vailed of some other species of this genus, before this was 

 so well knovra, — equally without foundation in both cases. 

 It is now well ascertained that the bay of the ancients 

 was the sweet bay, Laurus nohilis. 



