Bay leaf

“ In our lake, at least, they open irregularly, though rapidly. But, this morning, many linger as buds, while others peer up, in half-expanded beauty, beneath the lifted leaves, frolicsome as Pucks or baby-nymphs. As you raise the leaf, in such cases, it is impossible not to imagine that a pair of tiny hands have upheld it, or else that the pretty head will dip down again, and disappear. Others, again, have expanded all but the inmost pair of white petals, and these spring apart at the first touch of the finger on the stem. ”

“ Of these one is lofty and of strong growth with white wood of good fibre, softer, with less knots, and of more compact texture [17] ; the other is shorter, less vigorous in growth, rougher harder and yellower. The leaves in shape are like those of the bay, that is, the broad-leaved bay, but they contract to a sharper point, and they have a sort of jagged outline with sharp points. ”

“ The Frutex and Suffrutex have the way of production from the Seed, and in other respects the Suffrutices, or Cremia, have a middle and participating nature, and referable unto Herbs.
The Bay Tree, in Psal. 37. 35
42. I have seen the ungodly in great power, and flourishing like a green Bay Tree. Both Scripture and humane Writers draw frequent illustrations from Plants. Scribonius Largus illustrates the old Cymbals from the Cotyledon Palustris, or Umbelicus Veneris. Who would expect to find Aaron’s Mitre in any Plant? ”

“ These same trees may have grown continuously above tide-marks during several successive stages, until at last the upward creeping water rose sufficiently to reach this part of the forest. The large well-grown oaks seen in Mount’s Bay and various other places are, as far as I have seen, all rooted on [Pg 119] ancient gravels, solid rock, or boulder clay, not on beds of silt.
We cannot speak confidently as to the time needed to form each thin layer of vegetable soil, marsh peat, or estuarine silt. ”

“ The flowers are as plain and unshowy in size and color as those of the sweet peas of gardens. The seeds are large and satiny. The whole plant is noble in its motions and features, covering the ground with a depth of unconfused leafage which I have never seen equaled by any other plant. The extent of leaf-surface is greater, I think, than that of a large Kentucky oak. It grows, as far as my observation has reached, only upon shores, in a soil composed of broken shells and corals, and extends exactly to the water-line of the highest-reaching waves. The same plant is abundant in Florida. ”

“ First for Bay trees, the most vsuall way is to let them grow vp high to bee trees, and many plant them on the North or East side of their houses that they may not bee scorched with the Sunne; but the bitter winters which we often haue, doe pinch them shrewdly, insomuch that it killeth euen well growne trees sometimes downe to the roote: but some doe make a hedge of them being planted in order, and keep them low by lopping of them continually, which will make them bush and spread. ”

“ The Bay is the true Laurel, of whose leaves and berries the wreaths were made in ancient days for poets and conquerors. Naturally it is more of a shrub than a tree, for though it often attains a height of sixty feet, it persists in sending up so many suckers that the tree-like character is lost. In cultivation, however, it is often grown on a single stem, as well as formed by cutting into arbours and arches. ”

“ The Moreton-Bay ash, poplar gum, and a rough-barked gum-tree with very green leaves, were added to the ironbark, bloodwood, and other eucalypti which constituted the forest, while casuarina and Melaleuca leucodendron grow in the beds of the larger watercourses. The channel of the river is about 150 yards, with a small stream winding along the sandy bed; much of the running water is due to the late rain, but it is evident from the character of the vegetation that it continues to run throughout the dry season. ”

“ The swamp bay has lustrous, bright green leaves with silvery linings. In Florida and across to Texas and Arkansas it grows into a superb evergreen tree, fifty to seventy-five feet in height. Northward along the Atlantic Coast its growth is stunted as the climate becomes more rigorous, until it reaches Massachusetts and Long Island, where it becomes a many-stemmed shrub, whose beautiful leaves fall in the autumn. ”

“ Now in regard that there be diuers trees and shrubs mentioned here in this booke that beare euer greene leaues, wherein there is very great beauty, and many take pleasure in them; as the ordinary Bay, the Rose Bay, and the Cherry Bay trees, the Indian Figge, the Cypresse, the Pine tree, the Mirtle and dwarfe Boxe, and many others; I will here shew you how to plant and order them, as is fittest for them. For in that they doe not shed their greene leaues in winter as other trees doe, you may in reason be perswaded that they are of another nature ”

“ The bay, which stretches in vast extent, is filled with high reeds and wild rice, and rarely exceeds a few feet in depth except where open passages mark the deeper channels. It is a matter of no little intricacy for a stranger to find his way, and after nightfall the oldest habitué, will often become bewildered, as the various bunches of weeds, tufts of rice, or stretches of pond lilies look alike, and when a southerly wind is blowing the water falls and leaves all but the deep channels nearly or quite bare. ”

“ The trees are lofty and large, and the underwood grows so close together that in many places it is impassable. The east side of the bay is a rich loamy soil; but near the tops of the hills is very much encumbered with stones and rocks: the underwood thinly placed and small. The trees on the south, south-east, and south-west sides of the hills grow to a larger size than those that are exposed to the opposite points; for the sides of the trees open or exposed to the north winds are naked with few branches; while the other sides are in a flourishing state. ”

“ The shores of the bay are high and rocky and well wooded down to the water's edge, where the vegetation ends in a fringe of mangrove-bushes perched above the pure salt water on their long, stilt-like roots, which arch up from the bottom like the ribs of a great umbrella to meet several feet above the water at the point from which the main stem arises. ”

“ The green leaves, a yard or more across, with the pink flowers resembling gigantic lilies scattered among them, present a remarkable spectacle.
One of the most remarkable peculiarities of the floating leaves of our water plants is that they never grow up above the surface of the water. The plant appears to know when that point is reached. As we shrink from sudden contact with cold water, these leafstalks suspend their growth on contact with the air. They grow just long enough for the leaf expansion to reach the surface of the water. ”

“ Hollyhocks (Althea Rosea) , the well-known garden flower widely cultivated in many varieties, with showy blossoms of various tints of red, purple, yellow, and white. ↑ Perpetual spring. ↑ Fast. Firm; tenacious. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." I. Corinthians xvi. 13. ↑ Yea. Not this alone; not only so, but also; what is more.
"Many of you, yea, most, return no more."
Tennyson. The Holy Grail.
↑ Bay, also called Sweet Bay, the Laurus Nobilis, an arborescent shrub cultivated in English gardens, with deep green leaves and a profusion of dark purple berries. ”

“ The forester usually gets over these difficulties by planting beech, or silver fir, or some other species among the oaks, but in such a way that the oaks are never completely shaded by the other trees—that is to say, he keeps the trees at different ages, the beach, hornbeam, silver fir, spruce, etc., only being allowed to just close in the forest, leaving the leaf-crowns of the oaks to be fully exposed to the light above. ”

“ These plants, floated and nourished by the mother leaf, may drift down a creek or across a pond and establish new settlements. In a similar manner behave leaves of the following, and perhaps others: Cardamine pratensis, horse-radish, celandine, some water lilies, and other plants not grown in wet land.
Gardeners often propagate certain species by placing leaves on wet sand or mud, when buds spring from the margins of the leaves or from some other portion. ”

“ Hab.—From British Columbia to Marin County.
In our northern counties the rugged mountain-sides are often densely covered with the lovely rose-bay, which in early summer presents an appearance it would be impossible to rival. When the foliage, which is very rich in both quality and hue, is thickly massed with the great glowing flower-clusters, the sight is worth a pilgrimage to see. It is a shrub so beautiful, we marvel it is not generally cultivated in gardens.
The bees are very fond of the blossoms, but popular tradition ascribes a poisonous quality to the honey made from them. ”

“ If we trace the north-west shore of the bay, from the Mount westward to Newlyn, the ebb tide leaves a large space uncovered; the sea sand is from one to two or three feet deep; and under this stratum of sand is found a black vegetable [17] mould, full of woodland detritus, such as the branches, leaves, and nuts of coppice wood, together with the roots and trunks of forest trees of large growth. All these are manifestly indigenous; and, from the freshness and preservation of some of the remains, the inundation of sand, as well as water, must have been sudden and simultaneous ”

“ The forest trees on the ironstone ridges were stringy-bark, and on the grassy hills box, Moreton Bay ash, and a tree belonging to the natural order Leguminosae, with axillary racemes of white apetalous flowers, long, broad, flat, many-seeded legumes, large, bipinnate leaves, leaflets oval, one inch long, and having dark fissured bark; on the flat stiff soil grew ironbark, apple-tree, and another species of Angophora, with long lanceolate leaves, seed vessels as large as the egg of a common fowl and a smooth yellow bark. ”

“ The gardens command a delightful view of the bay, and are remarkable for large bushes of myrtles and roses, beautiful fuchsias, and geraniums, whilst the finest grapes, figs, pomegranates, peaches, apricots, and melons are profusely produced without requiring artificial heat or the protection of glass. The climate is too hot for the growth of apples, pears, gooseberries, currants, or raspberries. ”

“ G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' p. 263:
"Botany Bay greens are abundant; they much resemble sage in appearance; and are esteemed a very good dish by the Europeans."
1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 134:
"I do not think it necessary to enter upon any description of the Barilla shrubs (Atriplex halimus, Rhagodur billardiera; and Salicornia arbuscula) , which, with some others, under the promiscuous name of Botany Bay greens, were boiled and eaten along with some species of seaweed, by the earliest settlers, when in a state of starvation." ”

“ Plant of the American prairies, a plant not unlike a small sunflower, is another species with upright leaves, which growing in the wide open prairies tend to point north and south, thus exposing both surfaces equally to the light and heat. Such a position also affects the internal structure of the leaf, the two sides becoming similar in structure, while in other cases the upper and under surfaces are very different. ”

“ In England bay is used to designate the bay-tree (Laurus nobilis) ; in America it designates a shrub, the wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera) . Both the tree and the shrub have berries. Those of the latter are used to make the well-known bayberry candles. ”

“ Sometimes in such arid dry countries, a small spring of water will form around itself a refreshing oasis of greenery surrounded everywhere by dreary thorn-scrub or monotonous sand. All the plants in such a spot have their own special work to do: the graceful trees which shade the spring, the green mosses on the stones, the fresh grass and bright flowers or waving reeds, are all associated in a common work. They protect and shelter each other; their dead leaves are used to form soil; their roots explore and break up the ground. ”

“ The various plants of which this scrub was composed corresponded with those described as forming the scrub near our first camp in the Bay. The greatest obstacles to our progress through these scrubs were the long shoots of the Flagellaria, and climbing palm. We camped in an open patch of forest land, covered with grass, and the trees consisted principally of Moreton Bay ash, (a species of eucalyptus) , Casuarina, and a rather large-growing Acacia, with broad, rhomboidal, sericeous phyllodia, and very broad, flat legumes. ”

“ In our central Coast Range its tall stems, with their lovely clusters of white stars, make their appearance upon rocky hill-slopes with warm exposure, in the shelter of the trees, soon after the toothwort has sprinkled the fields with its white bloom. In the south it rears its tall stems upon open mesas, unprotected by the shelter of friendly tree or shrub, and in some localities it makes itself at home in bogs. It is possible that the future may reveal the presence of more than one species. ”

“ In form the leaflets resemble [24] the leaves of the 'fine-leaved' bay, except that they are jagged and shorter and do not narrow to a sharp point but to a more rounded end. The flower [25] is clustering and made up of a number of small white blossoms from a single knob. ”

“ Extensive gardens in exposed situations are often divided into compartments by hedges, so disposed as to break the force of high winds. Where these are required to be narrow as well as lofty, holly, yew or beech is to be preferred; but, if there is sufficient space, the beautiful laurel and the bay may be employed where they will thrive. ”