NOBLE LAUREL-TREE. .]];; 
bay-tree; and that one of these trees sprang from Virgil's ashes, and is still grow- 
ing over his tomb. In more recent times, the laurel was supposed to be a safe- 
guard against lightning ; and Madame de Genlis mentions the device of the Count 
De Dunois, which was a bay-tree, with the motto, " I defend the earth that bears 
me." It was a custom, in the middle ages, to place wreaths of laurel, with the 
berries attached, on the heads of those poets who had particularly distinguished 
themselves; hence the expression, "poet laureate." The crowns, which have 
for a long time encircled the heads of the young students in the European schools 
of divinity, law, and of medicine, who have taken their degrees, are made of the 
branches of this tree, garnished with the berries, and thus indicate the title of 
bachelor or baccalaureate, from the Latin baccai laurece, laurel berries. These 
students, formerly, 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. The statues of iEsculapius, crowned with sprigs of lau- 
rel, announced the great confidence in which the ancients held trie medicinal 
virtues of this tree. The laurel is mentioned by Chaucer as the crown of the 
Knights of the Round Table. 
Soil, Propagation, fyc. The Laurus nobilis requires a good free soil, and it 
will not thrive in the open air, in a climate much colder than that of London, in 
England, or of Charleston, in South Carolina. It is generally propagated by 
layers or cuttings, particularly the varieties; but the species may readily be 
increased from seeds. As it forms a dense conical bush, when not trained to a 
single stem, it is well adapted for hedges. This tree is very tenacious of life, 
and a root or stump of it will often send up suckers two years after it has appeared 
to be dead. 
Properties and Uses. The wood of this tree, from its inferior size, is not much 
used in construction, nor in the arts. The young branches are sometimes em- 
ployed for the hoops of small casks. Both the leaves and berries were formerly 
considered medicinal, being highly aromatic and stomachic; they are also astrin- 
gent and carminative. An infusion of them was not only considered beneficial, 
when taken internally, but it was used in fomentations, &c. From the berries, 
there is extracted a particular principle, called taurine. The kernels of the fruit 
yield an emollient and resolutive oil, called oil of laurel, which is employed as an 
embrocation in materia medica, and in the veterinary art. The essential oil is 
used in perfumery, and for scrubbing wainscots in chambers, in order to drive 
away flies. The leaves impart a yellow colour to wool. The principal use of 
this tree, however, is for hedges, and other purposes of ornament, though the 
(eaves are much employed for flavouring custards, blanc-mange, &c. The flow- 
ers afford the best kind of honey, and are numerously frequented by bees. 
As an evergreen shrub, the laurel is not only beautiful in itself, but connected 
as it is with many classical and interesting associations, it well deserves a place 
in every collection. 
