On [page 61] is illustrated the Poet’s Laurel or Sweet Bay, a beautiful evergreen shrub from South Europe. In many parts of Britain it grows over 21 feet high, but it is usually grown in tubs for floral decoration. The leaves, which are spear-shaped, have an agreeable, slightly bitter taste, and are used in cooking and for confections. The flowers, which are borne in the axils of the leaves, are yellowish in colour, but inconspicuous, and appear in early spring.
The Spurge Laurel ([page 62]), one of the European (British) shrubs, forms an evergreen bush about three feet high, with thick, shining, spear-shaped leaves. The sweet-scented flowers, of a greenish-yellow colour, appear in February and March, but are inconspicuous, and are borne in drooping clusters at the base of the leaves. Fruit of this plant is highly poisonous.
The Mezereon ([page 63]) is a conspicuous plant early in March through the leafless branches being covered with red, fragrant blossoms, succeeded later in summer by scarlet berries set amidst lance-shaped and acute-pointed leaves. The Mezereon forms an erect-shaped bush, about four feet high, of which the bark is used medicinally. A white-flowering form of this plant is in cultivation and bears yellow-coloured berries in summer.
Another of the British shrubs is illustrated at [page 64] in the Butcher’s Broom, a plant growing about two feet high, with rigid, spiny, widened branches on which are borne the small, white solitary flowers, which open in March and April. For a photograph on a larger scale, see Wild Flowers at Home, Fourth Series (“Nature Book” No. 16), page 58.
The Latin nomenclature adopted for the shrubs in this volume is that of the “Hand-list of Trees and Shrubs” (1902) issued by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The English and French names are compiled from various sources; where none existed, suitable appellations have been coined. The German names are due to the kindness of Herr Andreas Voss.
Footnote A: [Page 69], the Bush Honeysuckle is generally known by gardeners under its old Latin name of Weigela, which they often pronounce “Vigilia.”
Gowans’s Nature Books
The object of these little books is to stimulate a love for nature and a desire to study it.