BAY AND MYRTLE 



123 



famous ones grew in my father's garden. Reiterated 

 warnings not to chew Bay-leaves * because of the 

 prussic acid in them ' had the effect of investing 

 these trees with a w^eird interest. Every rice- 

 pudding in which a Hmp Bay-leaf was innocently 

 swimming became at once a viand worthy of 

 respect, and was uplifted altogether above its usual 

 insipidity. 



Nor have we spoken of Myrtle, sweet as it is and 

 in nature so often associated with Herbs. There are 

 sheltered English gardens where Myrtle will exist, 

 no doubt, but not very many where it will thrive ; 

 and anyone who has seen how happy it is, still 

 glossy green in February, among the withered 

 Thymes and Lavenders of the herbage of sunny 

 stone- scattered places in the French Riviera, will 

 never care to plant it where winter cold shrivels its 

 leaves, making them so brown and sere that it 

 takes more than a few summer months to recover 

 its good looks. A flowering Myrtle is one of the 

 luckiest plants it is possible to have, say the people 

 of the West Country ; and if the leaves crackle in 

 the hands, that shows the person beloved will prove 

 faithful. However this may be, ' crackling ' them is 

 one way of bringing out the good smell of the plant, 

 never very powerful, though so universally liked. 



