THE LAUREL.

Of the Laurel, so celebrated in the romance of classical literature,

there are only two species in the New England States,—the Benzoin and

the Sassafras. But those two shrubs, being deciduous, are not associated

in the minds of the people with the true Laurel. They have given this

name to the Kalmia, which is evergreen and bears a superficial

resemblance to the Laurel of the poets. A curious fact is related by

Phillips, in his “Sylva Florifica,” of the Laurel, which may not be out

of place in these pages. In the Middle Ages, favorite poets, who were

generally minstrels, were crowned with wreaths of Laurel branches

containing the berries; and this custom was imitated in colleges, when

they conferred a degree upon graduating students. “Students,” says

Phillips, “who have taken their degrees at the Universities, are called

_bachelors_, from the French _bachelier_, which is derived from the

Latin _baccalaureus_,—a laurel-berry. These students were not allowed to

marry, lest the duties of husband and father should take them from their

literary pursuits; and in time all single men were called bachelors.”