The third fort will grow to be a very large tree when 
it is planted in a moift foil, but in dry ground it rarely 
rifes to be more than twenty feet high. There have 
been fome plants of late years railed from feeds which 
came from Carolina, which have all the appearance 
of the third fort, but are of much humbler growth ; 
whether this may proceed from their being brought 
from a warmer climate, fo do not agree with the cold 
of our winters fo well as that, or whether they are a 
different fpecies from that, I cannot yet determine, 
as they have not produced fruit here. 
The Laurel may be eafily propagated by planting of 
the cuttings * the beft time for doing this is in Sep- 
tember, as loon as the autumnal rains fall to moiften 
the ground •, the cuttings mult be the fame year's 
fhoots, and if they have a fmall part of the former 
years wood to their bottom, they will more certainly 
fucceed, and form better roots. Thefe fhould be 
planted in a foft loamy foil about fix inches deep, 
preffing the earth clofe to them. If thefe are proper- 
ly planted, and the ground is good, there will few of 
the cuttings fail ^ and if they are kept clean from 
weeds the following fumrner, they will have made 
good fhoots by the following autumn, when they may 
be tranfplanted into a nurfery, where they may grow 
two years to get ftrength, and then fhould be remov- 
ed to the places where they are to remain. Thefe 
plants were formerly kept in pots and tubs, and pre- 
ferved in green- houfes in winter ; but afterward they 
were planted againft warm walls, to preferve them, 
being frequently injured by fevere froft. After this 
the plants were trained into pyramids and globes, and 
constantly kept fneered •, by which the broad leaves 
were generally cut in the middle, which rendered the 
plants very unfightly. Of late years they have been 
more properly difpofed in gardens, by planting them 
to border woods, and the Tides of wildernefs quarters ; 
for which purpofe we have but few plants fo well 
adapted, for it will grow under the drip of trees, in 
fliade or fun ; and the branches will fpread to the 
ground, fo as to form a thicket ; and the leaves be- 
ing large, and having a fine gloffy green colour, they 
fet off the woods and other plantations in winter, when 
the other trees have caft their leaves ; and in fumrner 
they make a good contraft with the green of the other 
trees. Thefe trees are fometimes injured in very fe- 
vere winters, efpecially where they ftand fingle and 
are much expoied ; but where they grow in thickets, 
and are fcreened by other trees, they are feldom much 
hurt ; for in thofe places it is only the young tender 
fhoots which are injured, and there will be new fhoots 
produced immediately below thefe to fupply their 
place, fo that in one year the damage will be re- 
paired. But whenever fuch fevere winters happen, 
thefe trees fhould not be cut or pruned till after the 
following Midfummer •, by -which time it will appear 
what branches are dead, which may then be cut away, 
to the places where the new fhoots are produced for 
by haftily cutting thefe trees in the fpring, the drying 
winds have free ingrefs to the branches, whereby the 
fhoots fuller as much, if not more, than they had done 
by the froft. 
Thefe trees are alfo very ornamental, when they are 
mixed with other evergreen trees, in forming of 
thickets, or to fhut out the appearance of diiagreeable 
objects •, for the leaves being very large, make a very 
good blind, and are equally ufeful for fereening from 
winds ^ fo that when they are planted between flower- 
ing- fhrubs, they may be trained fo as to fill up the 
vacancies in the middle of fuch plantations ; and will 
anfwer the purpofe of fereening in the winter, and 
fhutting out the view through the fhrubs in all fea- 
fons : there are alfo many other purpofes to which 
this tree may be applied, fo as to render it very or- 
namental. 
In warmer countries this tree will grow to a large 
fize, fo that in fome parts of Italy there are large 
woods of them •, but we cannot hope to have them 
grow to fo large Items in England ; for fhould thefe 
trees be pruned up, in order to form them into ftems, 
the froft would then become much more hurtful to 
them than in the manner they ufually grow, with their 
branches to the ground : however, if the trees are- 
planted pretty clofe together in large thickets, and 
permitted ^to grow rude, they will defend each other 
from the froft, and they will grow to a confiderable 
height : an inftance of which is now in that noble 
plantation of evergreen trees, made by his Grace the 
Duke of Bedford at Wooburn-abbey, where there 
is a confiderable hill covered entirely with Laurels ; 
and in the other parts of the fame plantation, there are 
great numbers of thefe intermixed with the other ever- 
green trees, where they are already grown to a con- 
fiderable fize, and make a noble appearance. 
There are fome perfons who propagate thefe trees 
from their berries, which is certainly the beft way to 
obtain good plants ; for thofe which come from feeds 
have a difpofition to an upright growth, whereas al~ 
moft all thofe which are raifed from cuttings or layers, 
incline more to an horizontal growth, and produce a 
greater number of lateral branches. When any perfon 
is defirous to propagate tins tree by feeds, the berries 
muft be guarded from the birds, otherwife they will 
devour them before they are perfectly ripe, which is 
feldom earlier than the latter end of September, or the 
beginning of O&ober, for they fhould hang until the 
outer pulp is quite black. When thefe berries are 
gathered, they fhould be fawn foon after ; for when 
they are kept out of the ground till fpring, they fre- 
quently mifearry ; and there will be no hazard in 
lowing them in the autumn, provided they are put 
in a dry foift and if the winter fhould prove fevere, the 
bed in which they are Town fhould be covered with 
rotten tan, ftraw, Peas-haulm, or any light covering 
to prevent the froft from penetrating of the ground. 
The beft way will be to fow the berries in roWs at 
about fix inches diftance, and one inch afunder in the 
rows ; if drills are made about three inches deep, and 
the berries fcattered in them, and the earth drawn 
over them, it will be a very good method. The fol- 
lowing fpring the plants will appear, when they fiiould 
be kept clean from weeds j and if the feafon fhould 
prove dry, if they are duly watered, the plants will 
make fo good progrefs as to be fit for tranfplanting 
the following autumn, when they fhould be carefully 
taken up, and planted in a nurfery, placing them in 
rov/s at three feet afunder, and the plants one foot 
diftance in the rows. In this nurfery they may re- 
main two years, by which time they will be fit to 
tranfplant where they are defigned to remain. 
The beft feafon for tranfplanting thefe plants is in 
the autumn, as foon as the rain has prepared the 
ground for planting ; for although they often grow 
when removed in the fpring, yet thofe do not take 
fo well, nor make fo good progrefs as thofe which are 
removed in the autumn, efpecially if the plants are 
taken from a light foil, which generally falls away 
from their roots ; but if they are taken up with balls 
of earth to their roots, and removed but a fmaii 
diftance, there will be no danger of tranfolantirm 
them in the fpring, provided it is done before they 
begin to fhoot ; for as the plants will (hoot very early 
in the fpring, fo if they are removed after thay have 
fhot, the fhoots will decay, and many times the plants 
entirely fail. 
There are fome perfons who, of late, have banifhed 
thefe plants from their gardens, as ftippofing them 
pofieffed of a poifonous quality, becaufe the diftilled 
water has proved fo in many inftances ^ but however 
the diftilled water may have been found deftructive to. 
animals, yet from numberlefs experiments which 
have been made both of the leaves and fruit, it hath 
not appeared that there is the leaft hurtful quality in 
either ; fo that the whole muft be owing to the oil, 
which may be carried over in diftilktion. 
The berries have been long ufed to put into brandy, 
to make a fort of ratafia, and the leaves have alio 
been put into cuftards, to give them an agreeable 
flavour and although thefe have been for many years 
much ufed, yet there hath been no one inftance of 
their 
