98 PRUNUS LAUROCERASUS 



furrow along one side, blue-black, smooth, shining, sarcocarp 

 abundant, pulpy, endocarp hard, smooth, pointed at both ends. 

 Seed solitary, with a thin testa and no endosperm, cotyledons 

 large, plano-convex. 



Habitat. The well-known Laurel of the gardens is a native of 

 the East, being found in woods in Thessaly, Bithynia, Armenia, 

 Northern Persia, and the Caucasian provinces. It was intro- 

 duced into Europe about 1580, and was known in English gardens 

 very soon after, though it is not included in Gerard's Catalogue 

 (1596) of his own garden. It very rapidly became an almost 

 universally cultivated ornamental shrub, and is now found 

 throughout temperate Europe, being only killed in very severe 

 winters. The plant flowers here in May, and the handsome fruit 

 is ripe in the autumn. Though individually quite like black 

 cherries, their growth in pendulous racemose clusters gives them 

 almost a grape-like appearance. 



Clusitis, Hist. PI. Pannon. (1583), p. 1 ; Boiss., Fl. Orient., ii, 

 p. 650; DC., Prod., ii, p. 450; Ledebour, Fl. Ross., ii, p. 9; 

 Lindl., Fl. Med., p. 232. 



Official Part and Name. LAUROCERASI FOLIA ; the fresh leaves 

 (B. P.). The leaves (I. P.). It is not official in the Pharma- 

 copoeia of the United States. 



General Characters and Composition. The fresh leaves, which 

 are alone official in the British Pharmacopoeia, are inodorous until 

 they are bruised or torn, when they at once emit a ratafia or 

 bitter almond odour. When chewed their taste is bitter, aromatic, 

 and somewhat astringent. "When dried their taste is still mani- 

 fest ; but they have no odour when bruised unless water be added, 

 when their characteristic odour is at once evident. 



The principal constituent of the leaves is supposed to be 

 amygdalin, but this is rather inferred than proved, as that sub- 

 stance has never been obtained from them. They must also con- 

 tain emulsin or some substance analogous to it, but no such 

 constituent has, as yet, been isolated. The nature and reactions of 

 amygdalin and emulsin are described under " Prunus Amygdalus." 



