AMYGDALEE. LAUREL. PRUNUS. ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA. The word Prunus is supposed to be of Asiatic origin.-French, laurier-cerise; Italian, lauro-regio. THE Laurel, commonly so called, Prunus lauro-cerasus, is too well known to need description: it is included in the same genus with the cherry-tree, and, in Johnson's edition of Gerarde's Herbal, is called the Cherry-bay, the translation of its present specific name. Johnson says, "it was sent to Clusius from Constantinople by the name of Trabison Curmasi, or the Date or Trebisond; but it hath no affinity with the date. Clusius, and most since, call it fitly Lauro-cerasus, or Cerasus folio laurino. It is now got into many of our choice English gardens, where it is well respected for the beauty of the leaves, and their lasting or continual greenness. The fruit is good to be eaten, of a sweet and pleasant taste, with a stone in it like a cherry." This tree is a native of the Levant, Caucasus, the mountains of Persia, and the Crimea. Clusius received it in the year 1576, from David Ungnad, then ambassador of Germany at Constantinople, with some other rare trees and shrubs, all of which are said to have perished by the severity of the weather, and the carelessness of those who brought them, with the exception of this Laurel and a horse-chestnut. Clusius says, indeed, that the Laurel was almost dead; he put it into a stove exactly as it arrived, in the same tub and earth; in the April following he took it out, cut off all the withered branches, and set it in a shady place; in the autumn it began to shoot from the root; he then removed the living part into another tub, and took great care of it: when it was sufficiently advanced, he laid down the branches, which took root; and he distributed his plants among his friends and men of eminence. Clusius's plant died without flowering; but one of those which he gave away, blossomed in the year 1583. Parkinson, in his Paradisus, published in 1629, speaks of it by the name of Bay-Cherry; saying he had a plant of it given him by Mr. James Cole, a merchant of London, then lately deceased, in whose garden at Highgate it was growing. It had flowered several times, and also borne ripe fruit. He describes Mr. Cole's as a fair tree, which he defended from the bitterness of the weather by throwing a blanket over the top of it every winter. It is curious to picture to oneself these careful naturalists tenderly nursing and watching over the fate of a plant, which now is common, not only to every gentleman's garden and shrubbery, but is seen coasting every dusty garden in the suburbs. Had the plant sent to Clusius been taken less care of, and died, the tree might have been many years longer a stranger in England, and we might still have been wrapping it in blankets. It is said that powdered Laurel-leaves will excite sneezing; these leaves are poisonous, and have in several instances proved fatal to the human race; to brute animals they are almost instantaneously mortal: yet they have been used both in medicinal and culinary preparations. The Portugal Laurel, Prunus Lusitanica, is a beautiful C evergreen, with large, glossy, pointed leaves, and blossoms very similar to those of the common Laurel. It blossoms in June, and the berries ripen in October. This shrub was brought to England from Portugal; but whether a native of that, or a plant which had been introduced from some other country, is not certain. The Portuguese call it Azoureiro; the French, Azarero; the Italians, Pruno Portoghese. By these names it appears, that to whatever country it originally owed its birth, it went to France and Italy, as it came to us,--from Portugal. The Kew Catalogue describes it as a native of Portugal and Madeira. It was cultivated in England in 1722. LAURUSTINUS. VIBURNUM TINUS. CAPRIFOLIEE. PENTANDRIA TRIGYNIA. Viburnum, from viere, to bind; some of the shrubs of this genus affording twigs fit for bands. French, laurier-thym; Italian, lauro tino; English, laurustinus, laurustine; which names signify little laurel; so called by old authors, who considered it as a smaller species of the bay-tree. Gerarde and Parkinson call it the Wild Bay-tree. THERE are several varieties of the Laurustinus; the Common, the Hairy, the Upright, and the Shining-leaved : the latter is by far the most ornamental; it grows higher and stronger; the bark is smoother, the leaves larger, of a thicker consistence, and of a finer green than the other varieties. The flowers also are larger, and in larger clusters; but this is considered the least hardy. It is a native of Portugal and Spain, Mount Atlas, and Algiers. The Hairy Laurustinus is a native of Spain, Portugal, and Nice: this is the most hardy of all. The leaves of the Upright Laurustinus are hairy underneath, and those of the common sort are hairy at the edges this last variety is an Italian. It was cultivated here in 1596. "We scarcely recollect a plant," says Mr. Curtis, "whose blossoms are so hardy as those of the Laurustinus; they brave the inclemency of our winters, and are not destroyed but in very severe seasons. The smoke of London is highly detrimental to its growth: it thrives best in a dry soil, and sheltered situation." The Laurustinus is one of the tasteful trees that gathered around Orpheus to listen to his lyre: "There stood a mountain on whose towering head, Slept in its core, and hardened in its rind. Such were the trees that own'd the magic sound." DR. ORGER'S Ovid, book x. Few of our poets have noticed this beautiful shrub: it is mentioned in Dodsley's Agriculture as finely contrasting with the laburnum and the daphne mezereon : |