if not too much bruised, exhale a delightful fragrance. The calyx is remarkably hairy; the flowers violet-coloured, varying in colour, sometimes only spotted with purple.

Basil, E.-French basilic-Latin basilico-Greek basilikon, signifying kingly, royal, courtly.

Several of the species of the Ocimon are held in superstitious veneration by the Hindoos, and are used in their religious ceremonies. The species most in estimation at Calcutta, is known by the general name of Toolsey. The whole genus is valued for their fragrant, aromatic, and sweet scent; which, in some instances, resemble the nutmeg, clove, citron, and fennel.

That which is used in French cookery, rises about ten inches high, sending out opposite four cornered branches from the very bottom. Leaves ovate, narrowing gradually towards each end in acute points, indented on their edges. The whole plant hairy, and has the odour of cloves.

According to Pliny-the sweet Basil, or OKIMON, was supposed to thrive best, when sown with cursing and railing-[see Ainsworth.] But I could not agree that in our more enlightened age, so sweet a plant, should have attached to it so revolting a superstition.

Another offensive error in relation to this plant, is mentioned by the learned Sir Thomas Brown, in his "Enquiries into Vulgar Errors, etc." He says "Many believe there is a property in Basil to produce scorpions, and that by the odour thereof they may infect the brain-as advanced by Hollerius, who found this insect in the brain of a man that delighted much in that smell." But he adds" According unto Oribasius, physician unto Julian, the Africans, men best experienced in poysons, affirm, whosoever hath eaten Basil, although he be stung with a scorpion, shall feel no pain thereby: which is a very different effect, and rather antidotally destroying, than promoting its production."

The Laurus Nobilis, or Sweet Bay, is decided to be the Daphne of Dioscorides; and, consequently, the classical Laurel of the ancients. It is still called by the same name among the modern Greeks. It is a native of Asia and Europe. There are many species of it, some of them indigenous in America.

The L. Nobilis is a tree of slow growth. Leaves stalked, lanceolote, veiny, finely reticulated, evergreen, aromatic: flowers four cleft, diœcious, in short axillary clusters, of a pale yellow, borne only by old trees: no calyx,

ENNEANDRIA.

Nat. Ord. Linn.

HOLERACE

Laurus, the ancient Latin name of the Bay Tree, for which it is retained by modern botanists, and along with which it now comprehends a great number of species, constituting one of the noblest genera in the whole vegetable kingdom. The origin of the word is now lost in the obscurity of antiquity: and whether etymologists derive it from lavo, to wash, or from laus, praise or honour, we have not the satisfaction to know.

Bay, E.-In Spanish baya, is a berry, the fruit of the laurel. Greek BAION, a branch of the palm tree. It was used in the ancient purifications. Ainsworth.

In the genus Laurus, are found the Cinnamon tree, or L. Cinnamonum, whose bark furnishes the spicy aromatic Cinnamon of our shops. It is a native of Ceylon, an island of the East Indies.

The L. Camphora, or Japan Camphor tree, of this genus, is that from which the best Camphor is procured. This is found in perpendicular veins, near the centre of the tree, or concreted in the knots of the wood. There is a grosser sort prepared from the roots, which is afterwards refined by a chemical process, into the transparent resin used in medicine. The Camphor tree, in its general character, is nearly related to the Red Bay of America; so similar in appearance, that, at a little distance, they are easily confounded.

The L Cassia, or Cassia-bark tree, celebrated from all antiquity, belongs to this family: native, also, of the East Indies. It is noticed in the Old Testament, Ps. xiv. 7, 8. It resembles the Cinnamon in its aromatic, fragrant bark.

L. Sassafras, American Sassafras tree, is also of this genus. It was among the first trees of America which became known to the Europeans, on account of its medicinal virtues.

L. Caroliniensis, American Red Bay, is another species, abundant in the Southern States, where it attains the height of from sixty to seventy feet, and from fifteen to twenty inches in diameter. The leaves are about six inches long, alternate, ovalacuminate, whitish, or glauceous, on the lower surface, and

The generic name is from the Greek PHAGEIN, to eat, because its fruit formed a part of the food of mankind, in the early ages of the world.

The F. Sylvatica, common European Beech, and the N. American Beech, F. Feruginea, are those specified in the emblematic part of this work. There are several varieties of these species, as the yellow striped, the white ditto, and the German, with dark red leaves, called the purple beech.

The flavor of the Beech-Nut is mild and rich, and incomparably more agreeable than that of the acorn, which was also made a substitute for more grateful viands, in those times of rustic simplicity, when

No costly lords the sumptuous banquet deal To make him loathe his vegetable meal.

Goldsmith's Traveller.

The Beech is a tree of large size with branches forming a beautiful head, "which glossy leaves adorn." The bark is smooth, and of a silvery hue-the frequent depository of secret and treasured recollections, as many a lover might testify. Its dense foliage, and deepened shade, have long been the trysting spot of youthful lovers, where many a vow of truth and rapture they have made, "Love being immortal, till they change, or die." It is a tree of poetic celebrity-Shakspeare notices it thus—

"O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books, And in their barks my thoughts I'll character That every eye, which in this forest looks, Shall see thy virtue witness'd every where. Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree The fair, the chaste, and inexpressive she."

Here Shakspeare alludes to the etymology of the word Beech which is defined Book, in the Saxon, Russian, German, etc. and, as has been suggested, Beech may probably have been the name applied to Bark, the material on which our ancestors wrote, and of which, of course, their books were formed.

Thomson's Musidora, makes it the voice of her thoughts

And on the spreading Beech that o'er the stream
Incumbent hung, she with the sylvan pen

Of rural lovers, this confession carv'd

Which soon her Damon kiss'd with weeping joy

"Dear youth! sole judge of what these verses mean,

By fortune too much favor'd, but by love,
Alas! not favour'd less, be still as now,
Discreet."

Virgil, too, has given it immortal bloom, in the opening line of his first Eclogue—

"Tityre, tu patulæ recumbans sub temigine fagi Sylvestrem tenui musam meditaris avena:"

ETC. ETC. ETC.

"In Bechen shades, you Tit'rus, stretcht along,
Tune to the slender reed your sylvan song;
We leave our country's bounds, our much lov'd plains
We from our country fly, unhappy swains!
You, Tit'rus in the groves at leisure laid,
Teach Amaryliis' name to every shade."

Veronica, an old but not classical name. Its common etymology is between the Greek and Latin, from Verus, or rather Vera true, and the Greek EIKON, a figure; and this, illiterate and barbarous as it is, has the sanction of the superstitious legend of St. Veronica, whose handkerchief is recorded to have received the impression of our Saviour's face, as he used it in bearing his cross to the place of crucifixion.

Veronica is abbreviated from Vericonica, of Vera-icon q. d. true image. Veronicas, in commerce, are imitations of that celebrated original one, preserved with great veneration at St. Peter's, in Rome; and imagined, by some, to be the handkerchief laid over our Saviour's face in the sepulchre.

Ambrosinus says, the word Veronica is German, and originated in the druggists' shops of that country. He favours the idea of its being corrupted from Vetonica, our Betonica, or Betony. Belvidere, E., from the Latin bellus, fine, and video, to see. Scoparia, from the Latin Scope, a broom, because the plant is used in the West Indies for making brooms.

Scoparia Dulcis, Sweet Scoparia. The leaves have a sweet taste like liquorice, whence its name of Wild Liquorice, or Sweet Weed, by which it is known in Jamaica. Sloane says, that three spoonfulls of the expressed juice of these leaves, taken evening and morning, for three days, is counted an infallible remedy for any cough. It has long been known in our green-houses as an annual of no great beauty. It blossoms throughout the summer: the stem is very busy, angular: leaves stalked, an inch long, light green, smooth, coarsely and bluntly serrated, tapering at the base: flowers small, white; corolla wheel-shaped, deeply four-cleft; numerous axillary, solitary, on short slender stalks: calyx in four deep equal segments.

spar

Lotus, or Lotos, a name applied to several herbaceous plants, essential to the maintenance of domestic cattle in countries ingly furnished with grass. For Trefoil, see clover.

There are several species of the Bird's-foot trefoil noticed under the article Lotus. The square podded Lotus siliquosus, with large lemon-coloured flowers once cultivated for the pods as a vegetable; and, latterly, for its flowers. Roots perennial.

The Crimson-winged Pea, or L. Tetragonolobus, is a hardy annual, with deep crimson velvety flowers. The pods, also, esculent. This species has been celebrated, as having first called the attention of Linnæus to the sleep of the plants. He observed its flowers to close up in the evening, and open again in the morning.

Common Bird's-foot Trefoil, L. Corniculatus, usually found in open grassy pastures, where it is conspicuous in the Autumn, with flowers of a golden yellow, more or less stained or striped with dark red: the stem clothed with close pressed hairs: pod or seed-vessel of a shining brown or copper colour: roots perennial has been recommended for fodder and hay, by the name of Milk-vetch.

The essential character of this genus, is Legume cylindrical, straight, wings cohering longitudinally above: calyx tubular; filaments dilated upwards: corolla papilionaceous.

Buxus, L. from the Greek PUxis, a box, and PUXOS, the tree.

Sax. box. The Box, sacred to Cybele, because the pipes used in her sacrifices were made of it. (See Tooke's Pantheon.) The Arborescent Box, or Buxus Arborescens, (Sempervirens, Linn.) a shrubby tree, from twelve to sixteen feet high; is a native of most parts of Europe, from Britain southward, and in temperate parts of Asia and America. It was much admired by the ancients, on account of its being easily clipped in the shape of animals, and other fantastic appearances. The younger Pliny gives a florid description of the pleasure grounds at one of his country seats; in which, among other curious devices, the letters of his own name, and of other words, were orderly expressed in rows of shorn box.

The Dwarf Box, or Buxus Suffruticosa, never rises to a greater height than about three feet, and grows in thick, much-branched tufts. It is found wild in many parts of France, by the road sides, about villages, and in stony, waste places, and is said to be truly indigenous.

It is used in gardening, to divide beds from the walks of flowergardens, and has great durability. R. E. The box is too well known to require a botanical description.

"Though youth be past and beauty fled, The constant heart its pledge redeems, Like Box that guards the flowerless bed, And brighter from the contrast seems."

Centaurea, from the Gr. KENTAUROS, the Centaur Chiron, who is said to have employed one of the species to heal a wound accidentally made in his foot, by the fall of one of Hercules' poisoned arrows.

Many of the species are agreeably fragrant as C. Moschata, purple sweet sultan. C. Suaveolens, yellow sweet sultan. C. Splendens, with beautiful purple flowers, and a silvery calyx, etc. The Blue Bottle, C. Cyanus, is a pretty field flower, with dark blue, funnel-shaped florets, and black anthers. In its wild state, those colours are always retained, but cultivation varies, refines, and multiplies its florets, until it has become a choice ornament of the parterre.

This species, is fabled to have received its name, from the youth Cyanus, who was so passionately fond of these flowers, as to pass all his time in the fields during their bloom, forming them into garlands, etc.-and in one of his ecstatic reveries, he was so profuse in their use, as to be overpowered by their accumulated sweets and Flora, with whom he was a favourite, finding him in this situation, changed him into his darling flower.

In Scotland it is called Blue-Bonnet, in Germany, Sweeden, and Denmark, Kornblume, in France, Bluet. The French have distilled from it, a water, which is said to be soothing and comforting to external inflammation particularly of the eye.

The specific name cyanus, also denotes the predominating color of this species, being derived from the Greek KUANOS, cerulean, azure, dark blue, etc.

• Corniculatus, Latin-Horned, like the Moon.

Ainsworth.

Genista, either from Genu, a knee-in allusion to the bending of the twigs; or from Geno, to produce: because it grows wild in abundance. Not a very clear etymology.

Rees' Encyclopedia. Broom, E.-Sax. brum, so called from its being made into brooms to sweep with.

Genista, Green-weed, Dwarf Broom, Scotch Broom, &c. A genus of shrubs almost entirely European, with tough angular stems and branches, either ternate or simple leaves, and yellow flowers: calyx a perianth inferior, of one leaf, small, tubular, two-lipped, the upper lip with two teeth, lower with three. Corolla papilionaceous, standard oblong, bent backwards from the rest of the flower.

Sweet blooms Genista in the myrtle shade,

And ten fond brothers woo the haughty maid. • Darwin

In allusion to the ten stamens being united at the bottom into one brotherhood, and with the single pistil inhabiting the same flower.

In France, the Broom is regarded as the emblem of Humility. Garland of Flora. The Encyclopedia states, that the term Plantagenet has given infinite perplexity to the etymologists and antiquarians. It is allowed to have belonged to the house of Anjou; and was brought to the throne of England by Henry the Second, where it was preserved by his posterity, till the time of Henry the Eighth, a space above four hundred years.

Skinner tells us that "the house of Anjou derived the name Plantagenet from a prince thereof, who having killed his brother, to enjoy his principality, afterwards repented, and made a voyage to the Holy Land to expiate his crime; disciplining himself every night with a rod made of the plant Genet, Genista, broom." And we are told, elsewhere, that he became nicknamed Planta-genet, from the use he had made of the Broom, or Genista.

Lemon, in his English Etymology, says: "It is very observable, that fourteen princes of the family of Plantagenet have sate on the throne of England for upwards of three hundred years, and yet very few of our countrymen have known either the reason of that appellation, or the etymology of it: but history tells us, that Geofry, earl of Anjou, acquired the surname of Plantagenet from the incident of his wearing a sprig of Broom in his helmet, on a day of battle. This Geofry was second husband to Matilda, or Maud, empress of Germany, and daughter of Henry I., of England: and from this Plantagenet family were descended all our Edwards and Henrys."

Of the Broom there are three varieties-the yellow, violet, and white flowering.

Their groves of sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon,
Where bright beaming summers exalt the perfume;
Far dearer to me yon lone glen o' green breckan,
Wi' the burn stealing under the lang yellow broom.

The wilding broom as sweet, which gracefully
Flings its long tresses, waving in yellow beauty.
The humble broom and osiers have their use,
And shade for sheep, and food for flocks produce

The plants of Ranunculus have a caustic and burning quality, injurious to men and cattle; particularly sheep: and it was with one kind of Ranunculus that the ancients poisoned their

arrows.

The essential mark of this genus, consists, according to Linnæus, in the nectary; the rest of the parts being uncertain. The nectary, in some species, is a naked pore; in some, it is bordered with a cylindrical margin; in others, closed with a notched scale.

Its general character is that of a perianth, of five ovate, concave, somewhat coloured, deciduous leaves: corolla of five petals, obtuse, polished; with small claws: nectary a cavity in each petal, just above the claw.

The Ranunculus Acris, Butter-cup, or King-cup, is a native of meadows and pastures, flowering from May to August. Called Butter-cup, from blooming at the season when the best butter is made. The double-flowered variety is frequent in gardens.

And fairies now, no doubt, unseen,
In silent revels sup;

With dew-drop bumpers toast their queen,
From crow-flower's golden cup.

Clare.

Burns.

Landon.

Dryden.

The broom and the furze are perpetually associated. They both bear papilionaceous flowers. The furze is sometimes called, by botanists, Genista Spinosa, and also Ulex Europaus, provincially Whin or Gorse. This grows abundantly in England: and it is recorded of Linnæus, that when he visited England, in 1736, he was so much delighted with the golden bloom of the furze, which he then saw for the first time, on a common near London, that he fell on his knees, enraptured at the sight. He conveyed some of the plants to Sweden; and he complains in Hort. Upsal, 212, that he could never preserve it in his garden, through the winter.

Of the furze, the common yellow and the white, are ranked under the head of evergreens.

Ranunculus, derived from Rana, and means a little frog. It is possible that the divisions of the leaves may have suggested the idea of a frog's foot, which supposition is confirmed by the English name Crow-foot.

It is an extensive and varied herbaceous genus: the seed, in no instance, ever producing two flowers alike, or one similar to the parent plant. The prevailing colour of the flower is yellow; yet it embraces all colours, from black down to white: blue is one of its most rare colours.

Arum, supposed to be derived from a Greek word, ARA, signi fying injury. I suppose from the acrimonious quality of the root, which, if cut in slices, and applied to the skin, will blister the part.

The A. Maculatum, or common Arum, is the only species indigenous in Britain, and is used medicinally. Its medicinal efficacy resides wholly in the active volatile matter, which is completely dissipated by drying, or the application of heat, so as to leave the root a bland farinaceous aliment.

There is a species, Arum Virginicum, Virginian Arum, which grows wild in wet places in Virginia, Carolina and Pennsylvania, etc., of which the savages are said to be very fond. They boil the spadix, with the berries, and devour it as a great dainty. There are several species of the Arum indigenous in America. Calla, is derived, according to some authors, from the Greek KALLOS, beauty. According to Professor Martyn, from KALLAION, Gr., the wattles of a cock.

The Calla Ethiopica-Ethiopian Calla, Cuckoo-pint, Wakerobin, Dragon-plant, Friar's-cowl, Eve's-apron, all English names applied to it, is a species of Arum-a native of the Cape of Good Hope. The flower is beautiful. Its alabaster white calyx expands into so elegant a vase-like shape, that Flora seems to have intended it for the hand of Hebe, when she presents the imperial nectar to Jove. This vegetable cup also pours out an agreeable perfume from its graceful and beautiful horn. Its appearance, in a group of plants, reminds us of a beautiful antique lamp for burning incense; which illusion the flame-coloured spadix, arising out of the centre of the white calix, considerably increases. It has arrow-shaped leaves, clustering from the root, eight or nine inches long, of a shining green, ending in a point, which turns backwards on petioles more than a foot long, furrowed, and sheathing at their base. The white spathe, a little fleshy, twisted at the bottom, but spread open at the top, suddenly contracting, and ending in a point. The spadix yellowish, cylindrical, about half the length of the spathe. Stamens above, pistils below, set so closely together, that they are not easily distinguished. The seeds are roundish, dark-brown and smooth.

Calycanthus, from the Greek KALUX, calyx, and ANTHOS, a flower. So called, because the calyx resembles a corolla. Linnæus gives the flower no corolla, but a calyx with many divisions in two concentric ranks, all resembling petals.

Jussieu observed, that the inner rank probably consists of petals. A shrub three or four feet high: stem irregularly branched; covered with a brown aromatic bark. Leaves opposite, egg-shaped: flowers of a dusky purple; the petals incurved at the top, having the odour of strawberries, or ripe apples. A native of Carolina. The seeds are thought to be poisonous to dogs and foxes.

This flower is so universal a favourite, that we are glad to have it in our power to perpetuate its bloom, which can be accomplished, after the usual season of efflorescence has passed, by simply cutting off the terminal leaf-buds—their places being constantly succeeded by two of these delicious fruit-scented flowers. See Nuttall.

"The gifts of love bear golden fruits

In usury to the giver's bosom,

As the spicy Calycanthus shoots

Its wreath of flowers from the leafy blossom."

Its popular names are, Carolina allspice and sweet-scented shrub.

Camellia, so named in honour of Geo. Joseph Kamel, a Jesuit, whose name has been Latinized into Camellus; author of Syllabus Stirpium, etc. annexed to the third volume of Ray's Historia Plantarum.

Camellia Japonica-a lofty, large, evergreen tree: leaves alternate, egg-shaped, acute, shining on both sides, thick and stiff, paler green beneath, on short leaf-stalks. Flowers large and beautiful, in the form of the rose: those raised in Europe, of a lively red; but in their native country, they exhibit a variety of colours. Its flowers readily become double, in which state they often occur in Chinese paintings. A native of China and Japan-introduced into England, before 1742, by Robert James, Lord Petre.

The Camellia sasanqua, with small snow-white flowers called by the Chinese Chawhaw, or flower of tea, is held in high esteem by them. They dry the leaves to mix with their tea to give it an agreeable fragrance-and their women make a decoction of them, with which to wash their hair. The oil made from the nut, is thought to be equal to that of Florence, It is easy of cultivation, not being choice in its soil—and is raised in great abundance.

As Venus wander'd 'midst the Italian bower,
And mark'd the loves and graces round her play;
She pluck'd a musk-rose from its dew-bent spray,
"And this," she cried, "shall be my favourite flower
For o'er its crimson leaflets I will shower
Dissolving sweets to steal the soul away;
That Dian's self shall own their sov'reign sway,
And feel the influence of my mightier power."

Then spoke fair Cynthia, as severe she smiled,-
"Be others by thy amorous arts beguiled;
Ne'er shall thy dang'rous gifts these brows adorn;
To me more dear than all their rich perfume
The chaste Camellia's pure and spotless bloom,
That boasts no fragrance, and conceals no thorn."
Wm. Roscoe, Esq.

Campanula, Latin, for a little bell.

Order.
MONOGYNIA.

Nat. Ord. Juss.
CAMPANULACEE.

Root biennial. The plant decays after having matured its seeds. The seeds should be sown in the spring and transplanted in the autumn, preparatory to its flowering the following year.

Stem two feet high. Root-leaves narrowed at the base into long leaf-stalks, slightly scolloped, hairy, harsh to the touch. Stem-leaves oblong, scolloped. Flowers blue, purple, or white, large-Monopetalous.

Native of woods on the continent of Europe.

"To me there's a tone from the blue bell-flower,
With her blossoms so fresh, when the storm is o'er,
As she thanked the sun for his beams the while-
That flower has taught me to repay

The friends who have cheered my stormy day,
With a grateful brow, and a sunny smile."

Gardenia, so named by Ellis, in honour of his able friend and correspondent, Dr. Alexander Garden—an eminent botanist and zoologist-a Scotchman, who settled at Charleston, S. C. in 1752: a correspondent, also, of Linnæus. During the political disturbances in America, he, being a loyalist, took refuge in Europe; and, in 1761, he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Upsal.

The original idea and character of this genus are taken from the G. Florida, first carried to England by Captain Hutchinson, in full bloom, from the Cape of Good Hope. Gordon, the nursery-man, having obtained layers, propagated it so successfully, as to have gained more than five hundred pounds by the produce. The flowers are always double, like those of the original shrub ; with only imperfect traces of anthers: but many specimens, with single flowers, have been brought from the East Indies, where it grows wild, as well as in China and Japan.

Stem shrubby, three or four feet high: leaves opposite, on short stalks, elliptical, bluntly pointed, entire, smooth, veiny, evergreen. Flowers solitary, of the size and aspect of a double Narcissus Poeticus, (which is the largest of the white kinds, with a crimson border on the cup of the nectary,) with a sweet and very powerful scent, resembling the flavour of ginger.

Lobelia, so called in honour of Matthias de Lobel, or L'Obel, a botanist, contemporary with Clusius, whose wooden cuts, for the most part, re-appeared in his works. He was, at one time, physician to the illustrious Prince of Orange, and to the States of Holland. Born at Lisle, in Flanders, in 1538. He removed to England before the year 1570, and was appointed botanist and physician to James the First, of England. He had, at one time, the superintendence of Lord Zouch's garden, at Hackney, during the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was one of the contributors to a work entitled the Adversaria, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. The aim of the authors of this