Laurus 
nobilis 
96 ARBORETUM NOTES. 
LAURACEZE. 
LAURUS NOBILIS: 
Loudon, v. 3, 
Of the sweet Bay, or true Laurel, we have 
at present two good trees; one standing close 
to the south-west corner of the house, and 
sheltered by it; the other, a larger and finer one, 
in the middle of a clump on the lawn, a little way 
from the south-west front of the house. Both 
were planted by my father, but I do not know the 
date; both were killed to the very ground in 
the winter of 1860-61, and both have grown 
up to be as large or larger than they were before, 
and very fine healthy vigorous trees. They have 
not indeed quite the appearance of trees; like 
almost all the Bays that I have seen in England, 
they throw out branches from the very base and 
all up the trunk, so as to be a dense mass of 
verdure from the ground to the top. 
The branches, as usual in this species (at least 
in cultivation), are very upright. The larger of 
our two may be 18 or 20 feet high; both flower 
plentifully every year, but I have never seen any 
fruit formed. In the south of England, the Bay 
tree fruits plentifully. In Italy, this tree grows to 
a much larger size, and has a more truly tree-like 
form and character than in this country, though 
still it is always a small tree in comparison with 
its gigantic kindred in Madeira and the Canaries. 
(Laurus Canartensis,— Webb). 
