THE COMMON OR CHERRY LAUREL 53 



the Pomecitron tree (which, because we have none in our countrey, 

 cannot be so well known) both for colour and largenesse, which 

 yeekl a most gracefull aspect ; it beareth long stalkes of whitish 

 flowers, at the joynts of the leaves, both along the branches and 

 towards the ends of them also, like unto the Birds Cherry or Padus 

 Theophrasti, which the Frenchmen call Putier and Cerisier blanc, 

 but larger and greater, consisting of five leaves with many threds in 

 the middle ; after which cometh the fruit or berries, as large or 

 great as Flanders Cherries, many growing together one by another 

 on a long stalke, as the flowers did, which are very black and 

 shining on the outside, with a little point at the end, and reasonable 

 sweet in taste, wherein is contained a hard, round stone, very like 

 unto a Cherry stone, as I have observed as well by those I received 

 out of Italy, as by them I had of Master James Cole, a merchant of 

 London lately deceased, which grew at his house in Highgate, where 

 there is a fair tree which he defended from the bitternesse of the 

 weather in winter by casting a blanket over the top thereof every 

 year. ... I had a plant hereof by the friendly gift of Master 

 James Cole, the merchant before remembred, a great lover of all 

 rarities, who had it growing with him at his countrey house in High- 

 gate aforesaid, where it hath flowred divers times, and born ripe 

 fruit also. . . . Dalechampius thinketh it to be Lotus Aphricana, 

 but Clusius refuteth it. Those stones or kernels that were sent me 

 out of Italy came by the name of Laurus Regia, The King's Bay." 



In the appendix to Johnson's edition of Gerard's 

 "Herball" (1633) is a similar description, illustrated 

 by two very fair woodcuts. The bark is described as 

 " swart green," and the leaves as " snipt lightly about 

 the edges " ; and it is added that 



" It is now got into many of our choice English gardens, where 

 it is well respected for the beauty of the leaves, and their lasting or 

 continuall greennesse. The fruit hereof is good to be eaten, but 

 what physicall vertues the tree or leaves thereof have it is not yet 

 knowne." 



In the first edition of his " Sylva" (1664), Evelyn 

 speaks of it as " resembling (for the first twenty years) 

 the most beautiful-headed Orange in shape and 



