THE LAURELS 



1063 



FLOWERS OF PORTUGAL LAUREL. 



The twigs and buds are a purplish 

 red. The leaves are darker in colour, 

 lacking the yellowish tint ; they are 

 thinner in substance, and harder in 

 texture ; also smaller, and, less space of 

 stem intervening, they appear more 

 crowded. Their habit is decidedly 

 pendent. The margins are " fulled- 

 out " and regularly serrated. There 

 are no honey glands either on stalks 

 or leaf-blades, and there is no smell 

 of bitter almonds when crushed. The 

 flower spikes are less slender, and the 

 individual flowers more conspicuously 

 white. The smaller fruits are longer 

 in proportion to their breadth. 



THE AUCUBA, OR VARIEGATED 

 LAUREL 



Though no relative of either of the 

 preceding, this shrub, in habit and 

 appearance, is remarkably like the 

 Cherry Laurel. Its leaves, when not 

 variegated, show the closest resem- 

 blance, in size, substance, colour, and 

 surface. There are but few, wide 

 apart teeth in the margins, scarcely 

 noticeable when young, but frequently 

 developing into broad indentations 

 later. Conclusive points of distinction 

 are found in the facts that the leaves 

 are arranged in opposite pairs on the 



shoots, they have no glandular depressions on 

 the under surface, and they emit no smell as of 

 bitter almonds when crushed. They are, how- 

 ever, usually variegated, being grown chiefly for 

 that reason. This variegation consists in white 

 or yellow markings or blotches, irregular as to 

 size and position, appearing as if the green 

 colour in the substance of the leaf had been 

 here and there chemically dispersed. 



Pollen- bearing and fruit-producing flowers 

 are chstinct, and they appear on different 

 plants. These flowers are not gathered into 

 simple spikes as those of the Cherry and 

 Portugal Laurels, but into loose, many- 

 branched clusters, each branch bearing a 

 terminal flower with others to right and left 

 immediately beneath. Each flower has four 



FLOWERS OF BAY. 



