THE PORTUGAL LAUREL. 381 
washed, to relieve them of the pulp, and immediately sown ; 
but it is more readily increased by cuttings, which should 
be planted in September, in sandy soil partially shaded ; 
the cuttings should be twigs twelve inches long, of the 
same season’s growth, with an inch of wood of the previous 
year’s formation, from which the roots will spring to form 
the plant; cuttings should be inserted half their length 
into the ground. During the following summer the cuttings 
will form roots, and shoot out to some extent. When the 
plants become close on one another, they should be trans- 
planted into nursery lines, at distances sufficient to enable 
them to become bushy, which in a year or two will adapt 
them for the shrubbery, or underwood in beltings, or along 
the drives throughout the forest, where it is an excellent cover 
for game, and its berries form a favourite food for pheasants, 
etc. In sheltered situations it forms a very ornamental hedge 
or screen-fence. Its green leaves, in consequence of their 
flavour, are frequently used in small quantities for culinary 
and confectionary purposes,.to impart the flavour peculiar to 
bitter almonds, and to the kernels of the other amygdalezx. 
The distilled water from the leaves of the plant is a deadly 
poison. The principal varieties of this plant are the variegated 
and the narrow-leaved. 
The Portugal Laurel Cherry—C. Lusitanica (Lois),—or com- 
mon Portugal Laurel, isa native of Portugal and Madeira. It 
was introduced into Britain about the year 1648, where it at- 
tains the size of a dwarf tree. It is one of the best evergreens 
adapted to our climate. It does not grow so rapidly as the 
common laurel, but is more hardy and luxuriant on soils of 
very opposite qualities. Its leaves stand so close on the plant 
as to display only the recently formed wood, of a dark purple 
colour, emerging from a dense mass of lucid green foliage. 
The flower spikes appear early in June ; and the blossoms are 
followed by oval:shaped berries, which change from a green to 
a deep purple by the end of autumn. 
The berries should be collected and dried in a mixture of 
sawdust or dry sand, and kept spread on a floor till March, 
