the tree was known long before, for it is
mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Vocabularies by the name of Beay-beam,
that is, the Coronet tree;[32:1] but whether the Beay-beam meant our Bay
tree is very uncertain. We are not much helped in the inquiry by the
notice of the "flourishing green Bay tree" in the Psalms, for it seems
very certain that the Bay tree there mentioned is either the Oleander or
the Cedar, certainly not the Laurus nobilis.

The true Bay is probably mentioned by Spenser in the following lines--

"The Bay, quoth she, is of the victours born,
Yielded them by the vanquisht as theyr meeds,
And they therewith doe Poetes heads adorne
To sing the glory of their famous deeds."

_Amoretti_--Sonnet xxix.

And in the following passage (written in the lifetime of Shakespeare)
the Laurel and the Bay are both named as the same tree--

"And when from Daphne's tree he plucks more Baies
His shepherd's pipe may chant more heavenly lays."

_Christopher Brooke_--_Introd. verses
to_ BROWNE'S _Pastorals._

In the present day no garden of shrubs can be considered complete
without the Bay tree, both the common one and especially the Californian
Bay (_Oreodaphne Californica_), which, with its bright green lanceolate
foliage and powerful aromatic scent (to some too pungent), deserves a
place everywhere, and it is not so liable to be cut by the spring winds
as the European Bay.[32:2] Parkinson's high praise of the Bay tree
(forty years after Shakespeare's death) is too long for insertion, but
two short sentences may be quoted: "The Bay leaves are of as necessary
use as any other in the garden or orchard, for they serve both for
pleasure and profit, both for ornament and for use, both for honest
civil uses and for physic, yea, both for the sick and for the sound,
both for the living and for the dead; . . . so that from the cradle to
the grave we have still use of it, we have still need of it."

The Bay tree gives us a curious instance of the capriciousness of
English plant names. Though a true Laurel it does not bear the
name, which yet is given to two trees, the common (and Portugal)
Laurel, and the Laurestinus, neither of which are Laurels--the one
being a Cherry or Plum (_Prunus_ or _Cerasus_), the other a Guelder Rose
(_Viburnum_).[33:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[32:1] "The Anglo-Saxon Be