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Show COMMON SWEET BAY. A0l HISTORY. This tree is a native of the south of Europe, but bears the winters of this climate perfectly well. Both leaves and berries contain a considerable quantity of essential oil, which renders them aromatic stimulating substances. The berries are generally brought from the Mediterranean, and are more pungent than the leaves. In Spain and Italy a considerable quantity of oil is obtained by expression from the fresh berries. It has a green colour, and strong aromatic taste and smell. As it therefore is not a fixed oil, but a mixture of fixed and volatile oil, and as its peculiar properties depend entirely on the presence of the latter, it is incorrectly stated to be a fixed oil by the Edinburgh college. It should rather have been denominated, from the mode of its preparation, an expressed oil. MEDICAL USE. It is only used externally as a stimulant. COMMON SWEET BAY. LAURUS NOBILIS. Class 1X. Enneandria, Order 1. Monogynia. Essenr. Gen. Cuar. As the preceding. Spec. Cuar. Leaves veined lanceolate: Flowers quadrifid. EE DESCRIPTION. ry Tur baytree, the crown of victory among poets, and the emblem of peace amongst conquerors, never rises with a stem, but sends forth many radical shoots. ‘Theleaves are smooth, often waved at the margin, of a shining green, and stand erect upon short footstalks. The flowers appear in clusters, and the flower- stalks proceed from the alz of the leaves. Thecorolla is cut into four upright oval Segments, of a yellowish white. an oval berry, It has |