The Laurels 



glands that can be seen, sometimes one pair, sometimes 

 two pairs, at the base of the back of the blades. A 

 peculiar flavour, the flavour of almonds and plum kernels, 

 can be detected in the leaf tissues on biting them. This 

 is due to the presence of hydrocyanic acid the dreaded 

 prussic acid and in any quantity these leaves would be 

 undoubtedly poisonous, but in small pieces they provide 

 the housewife with a cheap flavouring for custards and 

 puddings, the practice being to boil a piece of a leaf 

 in the milk or water. At times a cordial made from 

 the leaves has been substituted for true " Kirsch," 

 which, of course, is made from the cherry, and a 

 writer a century ago says that it was "much in use 

 among our drinkers of drams, and the proportion they 

 generally use it in has been one part of laurel water 

 to four of brandy." But about this time the attention 

 of the Royal Society was drawn, by a series of experi- 

 ments made by an Irish doctor, to the grave danger 

 attending the drinking of Laurel water, and the fashion 

 for it went out. Dogs and other animals have un- 

 doubtedly been killed by drinking water in which a 

 number of these leaves have been lying. Some gar- 

 deners have found in Laurel leaves* a very valuable 

 insecticide. They put the plant or the plants affected 

 into a box, then well bruise a number of these leaves 

 with a mallet, and quickly introduce them also into the 

 box and close it. The box should be air-tight. The 



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