Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/228

200] sometimes been used with advantage in nervous and paralytic affections. With the foliage of this beautiful tree, which, among the ancients, was consecrated to, they crowned their poets and heroes.

2. The Laurus æstivalis, or Deciduous Bay, a native of North America. It rises with an upright stem, covered with a purplish bark, and has oblong, oval, deciduous leaves.

3. The Laurus Benzoë, L. or Benjamin-Tree, which grows fifteen or twenty feet high: and

4. The ; both species are also natives of America. They may be cultivated by the seed, preserved in sand, and sown early in spring, one inch deep, in large pots. They require a soil taken from a rich pasture, with the sward, at least one year before it is used. Nothing more than weeding will be necessary; which must be constantly practised during the summer. About the middle of March, the pots should be taken up, and placed in a good hot-bed; soon after which the buds will appear. Weeding and watering should still be attended to; and at the approach of cold weather, in autumn, they should be sheltered under a frame, and replaced in the hot-beds, in the ensuing spring. After having been thus managed for three years, they should be taken out of the pots, and planted in the nursery-ground, where they may remain till strong enough to be finally transplanted. Such plants may also be increased by layers, but very slowly, as three or four years will elapse, before they take proper root. The young twigs should be laid in the ground in autumn; and, by twisting a wire around the buds, so as to stop, in some degree, the circulation of the sap, and stripping off a little of the bark with a knife, it has been found that they speedily acquire firm roots.

asserts, that he has seen bay-trees near thirty feet high, and almost two feet in diameter: and ranges the bay among his forest-trees.

Professor, in his travels through America, informs us, that the bark of the species called Sassafras is used by the women of Pennsylvania, for dyeing worsted of a permanent and beautiful orange-colour, which is not affected by the rays of the sun. They make use of urine instead of alum, in preparing this dye, which is boiled in brass vessels: the wood is employed for posts of inclosures, because it is found to last a long time in the ground; but, when exposed to the air and rain, there is scarcely any timber more subject to be destroyed by worms. The same writer informs us, that the Sassafras root is frequently peeled, and put into beer, while brewing; and also into brandy. A decoction of the root in water, drunk every morning, has, according to him, been used with success in the dropsy.

4. The Laurus Cinnamomum, L. or -Tree, is a native of Ceylon; has a large branchy root, which is hard and white, without smell: its trunk grows to the height of twenty feet, or upwards, and, together with its numerous branches, is covered with a bark, which is first green, but turns red before it arrives at perfection. The leaf is longer and narrower than the common bay-tree: when first unfolded, it is of a flame colour, but gradually changes to a deep green, on the upper surface, and becomes lighter