1552. The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Var. serbica, Pancic, from Servia, is similar, but not exactly identical, having a 

 more upright growth, with obovate wrinkled leaves. It is not in cultivation in 

 England ; but has proved very hardy ^ in Germany, where it bore - 20° Cent, at 



Bergsdorf. 



II. A large number of varieties^ have appeared in cultivation, of which the 



more important are : — 



2. Var. angustifolia, Nicholson, Kew Hand-List Trees, i. 145 (1894). Leaves 

 long and narrow, scarcely an inch in breadth. 



3. Var. rotundifolia, Nicholson, loc. cit. Leaves rounded at the apex. This 

 is said ^ to be more suitable for making hedges than the type, and succeeds better 

 than it in towns. 



4. Var. parvifolia, Nicholson, loc. cit. Leaves, \\ in. long, \ in. broad, with a 

 few coarse serrations. A low shrub, in cultivation at Kew. 



5. Var. camellicefolia, Nicholson, loc. cit. Leaves bent back, and twisted on 

 their base. A curious form, not common in cultivation. The best specimen that we 

 have seen is at Poles Park, Herts. 



6. Var. variegata, Nicholson, loc. cit. Leaves blotched with white. 



Distribution and Cultivation 



The common laurel is a native of the Balkan Peninsula, Asia Minor, the 

 Caucasus, and North Persia. It is most common in the Caucasus, where, however, 

 it is not known in Georgia or Talysch, being confined to the west, in Abchasia, 

 Mingrelia, and Imeritia, where the typical broad-leaved form occurs at all elevations 

 between sea-level and 4000 ft., being replaced higher up by peculiar shrubby forms.* 

 Boissier records it in Asia Minor from near Trebizond, and at the base of Mount 

 Olympus in Bithynia, In Europe, it is recorded by Adamovic * for south-eastern 

 Servia, the Balkan range between Rumelia and Bulgaria, Thrace, and Laconia in 

 Greece.^ (A. H.) 



The laurel was introduced to Vienna in 1576 by Ugnad from Constanti- 

 nople, at the same time as the horse chestnut ; and soon spread over Europe. 

 According to Evelyn, it was first brought into England, in 16 14, by the Countess of 

 Arundel, at Wardour Castle, where, Loudon says, there were in his time a great 

 number of very old laurels. Parkinson in 1629 says that he had seen it in fruit at 

 Highgate ; and it became very common at an early period in English gardens, and 

 in many parts of Ireland, where old houses are often surrounded by a dense thicket 

 of laurels, which grow in that country, as in all the moister parts of England, 

 with great luxuriance. It is now by no means so popular as formerly, but on 

 account of the facility with which it can be reproduced from cuttings and layers, 

 and its persistence in coming up from the stool when cut to the ground, it is likely 

 to remain one of our commonest garden shrubs. 



3 f"-^f-f^"'i- Ges. 1897, p. 68. 2 cf. Card. Chron. v. 620, figs. 105, 106 (1889). 



a. Gard Chron. viu. 572 (1890). 4 R^jde, Pflanzenverb. Kauka^s. 178, 347 (1899). 



Veg.-verhalt. Balka„ldr,der, 132, 464, 489 (1909). « Cf. Halacsy, Consp. Fl. Gr^c^, i. 498 (1901) 



