THE COMMON OR CHERRY LAUREL 55 



Philip Miller, in that storehouse of the botanical 

 and horticultural knowledge of his time, the " Gar- 

 dener's Dictionary " (Sixth Edition, 1752), speaks of 

 the Laurel as being susceptible to frost if " pruned up 

 in order to form them into stems," and recommends 

 as preferable the massing or clumping of many plants 

 together, as then first carried out by the Duke of 

 Bedford at Woburn Abbey. He also mentions that 

 near Paris, where it is not as hardy as with us, it was 

 grafted on the Cherry or Plum a practice which has, 

 he says, but little, if anything, to recommend it ; and 

 he also states that "the Berries have long been used 

 to put into Brandy, to make a sort of Ratafia, and the 

 leaves have also been put into Custards." 



The infusion of the leaves, known as laurel-water, 

 seems first to have been recognised as " one of the most 

 speedy and deadly poisons in Nature," about the year 

 1731, by the Abbe Fontana, whose experiments are 

 described in the 70th volume of the Royal Society's 

 " Philosophical Transactions " ; but it was the murder 

 of Sir Theodosius Boughton by his brother-in-law, 

 Captain Donaldson, by means of it, in 1780, that first 

 directed general attention to it ; and it was not until 

 1802 that Schrader identified the results of the dis- 

 tillation of the leaves as oil of bitter almonds and 

 prussic acid. Though a few crumpled leaves may 

 produce sneezing, and will rapidly prove fatal from 

 their fumes to moths and butterflies, they may, like 

 Peach-kernels, be used with impunity in small quan- 

 tities for flavouring. 



The Laurel certainly flourishes best in sheltered 

 situations, and in a deep and rather light soil. It is 



