CHAP. XLII. 



ROSA" CE R-\. C'E RASUS. 



715 



Description. The Portugal laurel has 



an erect stem, regularly branched on every 



side ,* seldom exceeding 20 ft. in height ; 



but in favourable situations, when pruned 



to a single stem, attaining the height of 



30 ft. or 40 ft., or upwards. It is generally, 



however, seen as an immense bush. The 



bark of the trunk is white or greyish, and 



that of the young branches of a shining 



purplish black. The leaves are of a lucid 



green, and the flowers, which appear in 



June, and are in long bunches, are suc- 

 ceeded by oval berries of a dark purple 



when ripe. The tree grows freely in any 



soil that is very dry and poor, or very 



wet. It flowers and ripens its seeds freely 



in the neighbourhood of London, but 



rarely in the neighbourhood of Paris, 



where it requires protection during winter. It is not of rapid growth, seldom 



making shoots more than 9 in. or 10 in. in length; but, when planted in good 



free soil, and trained to a single stem, plants, in the neighbourhood of London, 



will reach the height of from 12 ft. to 15 ft. in 10 years. 



Geography , History , <$-c. The Portugal laurel was received from Portugal about 

 1648, the date of its culture in the Oxford Botanic Garden. According to the 

 Kew Catalogue, it is a native of Portugal and Madeira ; and according to the 



Nouveau Du Homely of Portugal and Pennsylvania. That it is not a native 



of Pennsylvania appears certain, from its not being included in any of the 



different American floras that have been published. P. B. Webb, Esq., informs 

 us that, in 1827, he found the common Portugal laurel, on the Serra de 

 Gerez, in Portugal, growing about half-way up the mountain, and forming 

 a small tree, from 13ft. to 20ft. high: the hixa he found growing along 

 with it, and forming a tree from 60 ft. to 70 ft. high. The Portugal laurel 

 soon became a favourite in Britain ; and, indeed, during the first half of 

 the 18th century, this plant, the common laurel, and the holly were almost 

 the only hardy evergreen shrubs procurable in British nurseries ; in con- 

 sequence of which they were planted every where. In the neighbourhood 

 of Paris, the Portugal laurel is rather tender, seldom ripening its fruit, 

 and frequently having its young shoots killed back by the frost ; and in 

 Germany it is almost every where a green-house shrub. The original tree, 

 in the Oxford Botanic Garden, perhaps the first of the species that was 

 planted in Britain (unless there was one also in the Eltham Botanic Garden, 

 from which the plant was figured in the Hortus Elthamensis), was cut down 

 about 1826. It was about 25 ft. or 30 ft. high ; and the trunk, at 1 ft. from 

 the ground, was nearly 2 ft. in diameter. 



Properties and Uses, Soil, fyc. In Britain, it is generally planted solely as 

 an ornamental evergreen ; but sometimes hedges are formed of it in nursery- 

 grounds and flower-gardens. The berries are greedily eaten by birds, and, as 

 well as those of the common laurel, form a favourite food for pheasants. 

 What renders the tree particularly valuable, Miller observes, is its being " so 

 very hardy as to defy the severest cold of this country ; for, in the hard frost 

 of 1740, when almost every other evergreen tree and shrub was severely 

 pinched, the Portugal laurels retained their verdure, and seemed to have felt 

 •no injury." (Diet., 6th edit. p. 5.) In British nurseries, it is propagated by 

 seeds, which, before and after sowing, are treated like those of the common 

 wild cherry (C. sylvestris), or those of the bird cherry (C. Padus). 



Statistics. In the neighbourhood of London, at Syon, there are several Portugal laurels, 18 ft. 

 and upwards in height, and with trunks 18 in. in diameter ; and at Charlton House, an old tree 

 girts 7 ft. 8 in. at 1 ft. from the ground ; but the largest Portugal laurel in England is at Cobham 

 Hall, in Kent, where it is 40ft. high, with a trunk 2ft. in diameter; and at Eastwell Park, in 

 the same county, there is a tree, or rather bush, which, when we saw it in the autumn of 18'2(i, 



