LAUREL. 211 



exactly as it arrived, in the same tub and earth ; in the 

 April following he took it out, cut off all the withered 

 branches, and set it in a shady place ; in the autumn it 

 began to shoot from the root ; he then removed the living 

 part into another tub, and took great care of it : when it 

 was sufficiently advanced, he laid down the branches, 

 which took root ; and he distributed his plants among 

 his friends and men of eminence. Clusius's plant died 

 without flowering ; but one of those which he gave away, 

 blossomed in the year 1583. 



Parkinson, in his Paradisus, published in 1629, speaks 

 of it by the name of Bay-Cherry ; saying he had a plant 

 of it given him by Mr. James Cole, a merchant of Lon- 

 don, then lately deceased, in whose garden at Highgate 

 it was growing. It had flowered several times, and also 

 borne ripe fruit. He describes Mr. Cole's as a fair tree, 

 which he defended from the bitterness of the weather by 

 throwing a blanket over the top of it every winter. It is 

 curious to picture to oneself these careful naturalists ten- 

 derly nursing and watching over the fate of a plant, 

 which now is common, not only to every gentleman's 

 garden and shrubbery, but is seen coasting every dusty 

 garden in the suburbs. Had the plant sent to Clusius 

 been taken less care of, and died, the tree might have 

 been many years longer a stranger in England, and we 

 might still have been wrapping it in blankets. 



It is said that powdered Laurel-leaves will excite 

 sneezing ; these leaves are poisonous, and have in several 

 instances proved fatal to the human race ; to brute ani- 

 mals they are almost instantaneously mortal : yet they 

 have been used both in medicinal and culinary pre- 

 parations. 



The Portugal Laurel, Primus Lusitanica, is a beautiful 



