CHAP. XLII. KOSA V CE/L. CE^RASUS. 717 



of any other species of the genus. The growth of the common laurel is rapid 

 for an evergreen, being at the rate of from 1 ft. to 3 ft. a year ; but, as the 

 shoots extend in length, they do not increase proportionately in thickness, and 

 hence they recline ; so that plants with branches 30 ft. or 40 ft. in length, 

 though gigantic in size, still retain the character of prostrate shrubs. In 

 England it flowers in April and May, and ripens its fruit in October. Not- 

 withstanding the rapid and vigorous growth of this plant in ordinary seasons, 

 it suffers a great deal more from very severe frosts than the* Portugal 

 laurel, and is sometimes killed down to the ground, which the latter never is 

 in England. 



Geography, History, $c. The common laurel is found wild in woody and 

 subalpine regions in Caucasus, on the mountains of Persia, and in the Crimea, 

 where, according to Pallas, it forms a large evergreen shrub, flowering in 

 April. It was first received by Clusius, at the beginning of the year 1576, 

 from David Ungnad (then ambassador from the Emperor of Germany to Con- 

 stantinople), with some other rare trees and shrubs ; which all perished by the 

 severity of the winter, and the carelessness of those who brought them, 

 except this plant and a horsechestnut. It was sent by the name of Trabison 

 curmasi, or the date, or plum, of Trebisond, a city of Asia Minor, on the 

 Black Sea. Clusius relates that the plant of laurel was almost dead when 

 it arrived ; but he put it into a stove exactly as it came, in the same tub, and 

 with the same earth. In the April following he took it out, cut off all the 

 dead and withered branches, and set it in a shady place. In the autumn it 

 began to push from the root ; he then removed the living part into another 

 tub, and took great care of it. When it was advanced in growth, he laid 

 down the branches, which took root, and he distributed the plants which he 

 thus raised among his friends and men of eminence. Such was the origin, 

 in Europe, of a shrub now become so common every where. Clusius's plant 

 died without flowering; but another, which he gave to Aicholtz, flowered in 

 May, 1583 ; and a few years afterwards it flowered with Joachim Came- 

 rarius, at Nuremberg. Parkinson, in his Paradisus, published in 1629, says 

 he had a plant of the bay cherry, as he calls it, by the friendly gift of Master 

 James Cole, a merchant of London, then lately deceased; a great lover of all 

 rarities, who had it growing with him at his country-house in Highgate, where 

 it had flowered divers times, and borne ripe fruit also. He describes Master 

 Cole's "as a fair tree," which he defended from the bitterness of the weather 

 by casting a blanket over the top thereof every year, thereby the better to pre- 

 serve it. In the first edition of Gerard's Herbal, published in 1597, the laurel is 

 not mentioned ; but in the appendix to Johnson's enlarged edition, published 

 in 1633, it is said that the cherry bay " is now got into many of our choice Eng- 

 lish gardens, where it is well respected for the beauty of the leaues, and their 

 lasting, or continuall, greennesse." Evelyn, in the 1st edition of his Sylva, 

 published in 1664, says that " this rare tree was first brought from Civita 

 Vecchia, in 1614, by the Countess of Arundel, wife to that illustrious patron 

 of arts and antiquities, Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surrey," to whom this 

 country is indebted for the possession of the Arundelian marbles. Evelyn 

 adds that he cannot easily assent to this tradition, though he had it from 

 " a noble lord ;" thinking it " more likely that it came from some colder 

 clime." By the History of the Arundel Family, it appears that the Countess of 

 Arundel set out to Italy in 1614, for the purpose of accompanying her two 

 sons to England ; and, as there are an immense number of very old laurels at 

 Wardour Castle, the present seat of the family, it is probable that the tra- 

 dition is correct ; though the plant may also have been introduced by some 

 other person. Ray, in 1688, relates that it was first brought from Tre- 

 bisond to Constantinople ; thence to Italy, France, Germany, and to England, 

 where it was very common in gardens and shrubberies ; that it increased, 

 flowered, and fruited very well ; was very patient of cold, and braved our 

 winters, even in exposed situations; "that it roots easily, grows quick, and 

 in a short time becomes a tree of tolerable srze; but that it is not fitted 

 for topiary work, on account of its thick and woody branches," &c. (Hist., 



