TREES OF AMERICA. 90 



to be good for purifying the blood ; and in 

 Louisiana the leaves are boiled in soup to 

 thicken it, and give it a pleasant flavour. 

 In Virginia too, the people make beer from 

 the young shoots, which they like very much: 

 it is made in the same way as the spruce 

 beer. 



" The red bay is the largest of all the 

 laurels ; it is only found in Virginia and the 

 States still farther south, where it grows 

 from sixty to eighty feet high. The flowers 

 are quite small and not beautiful, and the 

 fruit or seed is like that of the sassafras. 

 The wood is strong, fine grained and of a 

 lovely rose colour, and it takes a brilliant 

 polish. It was formerly very much used for 

 furniture, but mahogany is preferred now ; it 

 is mostly employed in ship-building, being 

 both strong and durable. There is another 

 species of laurel that is of more value than 

 any of those I have mentioned, but it only 

 grows in the East Indies ; it is almost exactly 

 like the red bay in appearance, except that the 

 berries are purple ; and its worth is in the 

 gum that is got from the roots ; this gum is 

 the camphire that we buy from the druggists." 



