(From laus, praise; as it was the rewardof victors). Hippoglossum epiglos-sum, daphne, diglossum, epiglottis, ruscus latifolius, bonefacia, coracobotane gazar, uvularia; ruscus hippo-glossumhin. Sp. Pl. 1474, laurel of Alexandria. The root of this plant is knotted at the head; the stalks tough and pliant; the leaves placed alternately; on the middle of the back of each grows a small mossy flower, succeeded by a red berry. It grows in the mountainous part of Italy and Hungary, and is said to be diuretic.

Laurus vulgaris, diahexapela diahexapte, common laurel, or bay tree, lanrus nobilis Lin. Sp. Pl. 529; is an evergreen, with oblong, stiff, smooth leaves, flowers of a palish yellow colour, followed by oblong dry berries, containing, under a thin black skin, an horny shell, within which are lodged two dark brownish seeds joined together. It is a native of the south of Europe, and common in our gardens. The flowers appear in April or May, the berries ripen in September; but those which are used in the shops are generally the fruit of the laurus Alexandrina, from the Mediterranean.

The leaves have a light agreeable smell, and a weak aromatic rough taste. In distillation with water they yield a small quantity of a very fragrant essential oil; and with rectified spirit a moderately warm pungent extract. They are, however, rarely employed except in an enema, and the decoctum pro fomento, Pharm. London; though sometimes the infusion is drunk as tea. The berries are stronger than the leaves, and yield more essential oil: the expressed oil is fluid and insipid; but when the berries are ripe and boiled in water they afford a thick oil of a yellowish green colour, the oil of bay, which is bitter, acrid, and an useful application in palsies, or nervous disorders. The oil of bay berries is called daphneldaeon and oleum laurinum. The berries are an ingredient in the emplastrum cumini; and Bergius thinks them stomachic, resolvent, promoters of the menses, urine, and perspiration, recommending them, however, only in hysteria. They have long been thought to act with peculiar power on the uterine system, and improper to be used during pregnancy. The essential oil of the berries may be taken in doses of from one to five or six drops on sugar, mixed with mucilage, or in the spirit of wine.

Laurus cassia. See Folium.

Laurus rosea. See Nerion.