Prunus 1 5 5 1 



PRUNUS LAUROCERASUS, Common Laurel 



Prunus Laurocerasus, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 474 (1753); Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal Plants, ii. t. 98 



(1880). 

 Padus Laurocerasus, Miller, Gard. Diet. ed. 8, No. 4 (1768). 

 Cerasus Laurocerasus, Loiseleur, Nouv. Duhamel, v. 6 (18 12); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 716 



(1838); Boissier, Fl. Orient, ii. 650 (1872). 

 Laurocerasus officinalis, Roemer, Fam. Nat. Syn. iii. 91 (1847); Schneider, Laubhohkunde, i. 646 



(1906). 



An evergreen large shrub, occasionally arborescent. Young branchlets glabrous. 

 Leaves coriaceous, persistent two years, 5 to 6 in. long, 2 to 3 in. broad, obovate- 

 oblong or narrowly elliptic, acuminate at the apex, tapering at the base, with a 

 few remote minute serrations ; glabrous ; shining above ; duller and lighter green 

 beneath, and marked on each side of the midrib near the base with one or two 

 circular glands ; lateral nerves pinnate, about 8 to 10 pairs, dividing and looping 

 before reaching the margin ; petiole short, stout, without glands. 



Flowers, in erect leafless racemes, about 4 in. long, arising in an axil of a leaf 

 on the preceding year's shoot ; axis and pedicels glabrous ; calyx-tube wide at the 

 mouth ; sepals minute, triangular, often with peculiar teeth ; petals small, wrinkled ; 

 ovary superior, glabrous, green, with a short glabrous style, and a capitate stigma. 

 Fruit ellipsoid, \ in. long, plum-coloured when ripe, depressed at the base ; flesh 

 scanty ; stone ovoid, pointed at the apex, smooth, with a prominent ridge on one side. 



Varieties 



L The common laurel varies in the wild state, the typical large-leaved form being 

 common at low altitudes in the Caucasus ; while at high elevations, between 6000 

 and 7000 feet on limestone formation, there occurs a form with shorter racemes and 

 smaller leaves, var. brachystachius, Albow, Fl. Colchica, 68 (1895). Another form 

 with longer narrower leaves, var. laurifolius, Albow, is met with in the valleys of 

 Guria. The following appears to be the European variety of the species : 



I. Var. schipkaensis, Spath, ex Dippel, Laubholzkunde, iii. 649 (1893). Leaves, 

 lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, about 3 in. long, and i in. broad, entire in margin ; 

 glands on the back inconspicuous or absent. Racemes, \\ in. long ; calyx green ; 

 sepals broad, triangular, each with two minute reddish glands on the margin ; petals 

 white, orbicular, not wrinkled. 



This is a small shrub, about 3 ft. high, which has been found wild on the 

 Balkan range, near the Shipka Pass, and in other localities. It was introduced into 

 cultivation by Spath, and has proved much hardier^ than the type in Switzerland 

 and Germany, and thrives in the United States as far north as central New York.^ 

 It is in cultivation at Kew and Cambridge. 



> Mitt. Deut. Dcnd. Ges. 1898, p. 96. ' R^hder, in Bailey. Cyc. Amer. Hort. 14SS (1901). 



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