1554 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Varieties 



I. In addition to the typical form, which occurs in Spain and Portugal, the 

 following geographical varieties are known : 



1. Var. Hixa, De Candolle, Prod. ii. 540 (1825); Lowe, Flora Madeira, i. 236 

 (1836). Leaves narrower, more oblong, about 5 in. long and i in. broad. 

 Racemes, 6 to 8 in. long, with flowers less crowded than in the type. 



Indigenous in the Madeira and Canary Islands. Lowe states that in 1836, it 

 was nearly extinct in Madeira ; but a few trees remained, 40 to 60 ft. in height, and 

 occasionally 6 ft. in girth. According to Webb and Berthelot, 1 it grows on the 

 north-east of Teneriffe in woods, at about 2000 feet, attaining in the' wood of Las 

 Mercedes 30 ft. in height. Webb, however, informed Loudon that on Teneriffe, 

 Grand Canary, and Palma, it occasionally reached a height of 60 or 70 ft. 



2. Var. azorica, Nicholson, in Kew Hand- List Trees, i. 147 (1894). Leaves more 

 coriaceous, and more coarsely serrate than in the type. Racemes short, densely 

 flowered. Indigenous in St. Miguel in the Azores, where it was collected by 

 Hunt in 1845, and later by Godman. 2 This variety, which is in cultivation at 

 Kew, is shrubby. 



II. Several varieties have arisen in cultivation as seedlings : 



3.. Var. myrtifolia, Nicholson, loc. cit. A shrub of compact habit, with small 



leaves, 1 J to 2 in. long. 



4. Var. variegata, Nicholson, loc. cit. Leaves variegated with white. This is 



said by Koch, Dendrologie, i. 125 (1869), to be cultivated in France. 



Distribution and Cultivation 



P. lusilanica is a native of Spain and Portugal, and of the Azores, Canary, and 

 Madeira Islands. In Portugal, where it is called azareiro, 3 it is apparently not a 

 common tree, as the only localities mentioned by Willkomm, 4 where it is indigenous, 

 are the Serras of Bussaco, Estrella, and Gerez. 5 It is abundant in the woods of 

 Bussaco, where Elwes 6 saw it in 1909 attaining a height of 50 to 60 feet and 

 5 to 6 ft. in girth. 7 On the Serra de Gerez, it grows up to 3000 ft. elevation as a 

 scattered tree in woods composed mainly of Quercus pedunculata, Arbutus, holly, and 

 sycamore. Webb informed Loudon that it formed here a small tree 20 ft. high ; 

 but growing with it was a taller tree, 60 to 70 ft. high, which he supposed to be 

 var. Hixa, but which was undoubtedly the same. 8 In Spain this species is rare and 



1 Hist. Nat. Isles Canar. iii., Phyl. ii. 19, t. 38 (1836). The leaves figured scarcely differ from those of the Portuguese 

 tree ; hut the flowers are in longer racemes. 



2 Watson, in Godman, Nat. Hist. Azores, 158 (1870). 3 Broteiro, /'/. Lusil. ii. 252 (1804). 



4 Pflamenverb. Iber. Halbinsel, 112, 312, 3 1 8, 321 (1896). 6 It was collected also at Cintra by Welwitsch. 



In the forest of Bussaco the Portugal laurel attained a height of 50 to 60 ft., with trunks 5 to 6 ft. in girth, but it 

 did not form an important element in the forest, either here or in the Serra de Gerez, where it was smaller. I did not see in 

 the Serra de Gerez any tree so large as the ones mentioned by Webb. II. J. E. 



r Cf. J. de Vilmorin, in Bull. Soc. Dend. France, 1907, p. 49. 



8 Webb, Iter. Hisp. 48 (1838), mentions only one form of P. lusilanica, as occurring in the Serra de Gerez. 





