Lauraceae

Several reasons persuaded us to reproduce here in full the interesting article on the ‘lauraceae’ of Madeira that Carlos de Meneses, co-author of this Elucidário, published in the Diário da Madeira (‘Madeira Daily’) of 22 May 1909. Here it is:

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The laurel family (Lauraceae), which comprises about 900 species, almost all of them tropical and distributed among 42 genera, has the following representatives in the Madeira archipelago: Madeira mahogany (vinhático, Persea indica), barbusano (Apollonias barbujana, a laurel-forest tree), til (Ocotea foetens, Madeiran laurel) and loureiro.

Madeira mahogany (Persea indica), which also grows wild in the Canary Islands and the Azores, is one of the most useful and interesting forest trees of Madeira. Its leaves are large, leathery, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, light green or reddish, silky-pubescent when young and glabrous when mature. Its flowers are small, greenish-white and tomentose-pubescent, borne in axillary panicles on compressed peduncles, and its berries are ovoid or oblong and black when ripe. The wood of this species, which is reddish in colour, is highly prized on the island. It is used chiefly for making furniture, and it is hard to tell apart from mahogany, which it resembles very closely, although it is slightly inferior in quality. In furniture made of mahogany, the grain is more pronounced than in furniture made from the wood of our island’s species.

Madeira mahogany, once very common, is becoming rare because of the relentless war waged on it for its precious timber, which fetches high prices on the Funchal market. Extensive woods that we knew in the interior and the north of the island have been destroyed completely by unscrupulous individuals. They did not even trouble to sow the land again, so as not to deprive it for many years of the forest cover that is so useful in a country as rugged as Madeira.

This Madeiran laurel was still to be found in many valleys and ravines in the north and centre of the island, and it is cultivated on several quintas in Camacha and Santo António da Serra (‘St Anthony of the uplands’). It grows poorly in Funchal and in all places in the southern region below 150 or 200 metres. It flowers from August to November and fruits from October to April. It prefers damp places and can reach 25 metres, and in some cases even 30 or 32 metres, in height.

Madeira mahogany grows as a naturalised plant in some parts of Portugal, where, according to Brotero, it is known as loureiro real. On the introduction and cultivation of this tree on the mainland of the Kingdom (reino, i.e. mainland Portugal), an article by the Revd Father Manoel Narcizo Martins in vol. VI of Broteria, the natural sciences review of the college of São Fiel, deserves to be consulted.

During the 18th century, Madeira mahogany timber was exported to England, where it was known as Madeira mahogany. According to Professor Piazzi Smith, the largest ships of the Invincible Armada, sent by Philip II against Great Britain, were built or fitted out inside with Madeira mahogany and til wood from the island. However, since Portuguese historians, as far as we know, say nothing on the matter, it seems to us that the said professor’s revelation should not be accepted without a certain reserve.

The wood that Funchal cabinetmakers call ‘Brazilian vinhático’ comes from Eucalyptus robusta, a species cultivated in some parts of the island.

The barbusano (Apollonias barbujana, a laurel-forest tree), given here as Apollonias canariensis and peculiar to the archipelagos of Madeira and the Canary Islands, is a tree with leathery leaves, ovate-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, of a green noticeably darker than that of the Madeira mahogany (vinhático, Persea indica). Its greenish-white flowers are borne in panicles shorter than the leaves, and its fruits are oblong and black. On the leaves of this tree there is a very prominent gall, produced by an eriophyid mite, which was described by the distinguished cecidologist the Reverend Joaquim da Silva Tavares in vol. II of Broteria.

The wood of the barbusano, which is heavy and dark brown or dark grey, is now very little used by cabinet-makers, because it is extremely dense and hard. In the countryside excellent spindles are made from it, and in the past it was also used for the beams of houses.

The barbusano is found at various points on the north coast of the island between Seixal (‘pebble shore’) and Boa Ventura, at São Gonçalo, in Curral das Freiras (‘nuns’ fold’), on the Levada do Bom Sucesso, etc., and it is the member of the laurel family best suited to the coastal region. Frutuoso mentions it on Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’), where it now seems to be completely extinct. It is widely cultivated in the quintas of Funchal and Monte (‘hill’), where it reaches 30 and 35 metres in height, whereas outside these localities it seldom exceeds 20 metres. It flowers from November to March and generally fruits from January to April.

The til (Ocotea foetens, Madeiran laurel), given here as Oreodaphne foetens, is easily distinguished from the other Madeiran laurels because its berries are enclosed up to a certain height (sometimes up to half-way) by a kind of cup formed by the enlarging calyx. It has ovate, ovate-oblong or oblong leaves, which are glabrous but bear tufts of hairs in the axils of the veins on the underside, and small greenish-white flowers arranged in panicles longer or shorter than the leaves.

In tils of a certain age, the heartwood and the sapwood are very clearly delimited, the latter being white and the former black. When freshly cut, the wood has a strong and rather unpleasant smell, which disappears completely only after years. Today this wood is used only for making furniture, but when it was more plentiful it was also used for the beams and floors of buildings. The old chests in which country people usually store their wheat are for the most part made of til.

Madeiran cabinet-makers distinguish between white til and black til, although both belong to the same botanical species: the white wood of the til comes from young trees, the black from old trees. We believe that only after 40 years does the inner part of the wood of the species we are discussing begin to take on a markedly black colour.

Black til is the only kind truly prized in cabinet-making. White til is worth much less, although it can also be used in inlaid work (embutidos) and for making some utensils.

The til is a species peculiar to the Madeira and Canary Islands group. In Madeira it grows especially in the valleys of the interior and the north, where, like the Madeira mahogany, it is becoming rare because of the great demand for its timber and the high price it fetches on the market. It can reach 35 metres, and even a little more, but it usually does not exceed 25 to 30 metres in height. It flowers from November to June, and its berries, which are black and ovoid or oblong, appear irregularly for a large part of the year. The foliage of the til can be used as fodder.

The laurel (Laurus canariensis) is the most abundant of the Madeiran lauraceae and the one that reaches the greatest altitudes. On the high ground of the mountain region it generally grows no taller than 10 to 12 metres, but in the valleys and the low-lying parts of the island it can reach 25 to 30 metres. Its leaves, which are elliptical, ovate, oblong or lanceolate, have a pleasant and distinctive scent, and its small umbels of yellowish-white flowers, arranged in clusters, are usually shorter than the leaf stalks. It flowers at the same time as the barbusano, and its berries, which are ovoid and black, rarely yellow, appear from September to April.

The wood of the laurel, which is light in colour, is inferior to that of the other Madeiran lauraceae and is little used for building work. Its charcoal is soft and less sought after than that of the heaths (Erica scoparia) and the uveiras (Vaccinium maderense).

Laurel leaves are used as a seasoning in cooking, and an oil is extracted from the berries that was once used to light the poor houses of the countryside. To extract this oil, the berries are boiled and then pressed inside a cloth bag in small wooden presses. As the oil is lighter than the remaining liquid, it floats on top and is easily drawn off from the vessel in which the operation took place. The light obtained by burning laurel oil gives off no bad smell, but it is weak and very smoky. The tree we are describing is today completely extinct on the island of Porto Santo, where it also once grew.

On the trunks of old laurels a very curious plant gall is often found, produced by Exobasidium Lauri, a fungus of the family Exobasidiaceae. This gall, which can reach 20 centimetres in length and usually branches, is known by the name of ‘madre de louro’ (fungal gall on laurel trunks) and is held in Madeira to have emmenagogue properties.

The laurel is a species peculiar to Madeira and the Canary Islands; the Azorean tree referred to by Hewett Cottrell Watson and by Meissner as Laurus canariensis of Webb is Persea azorica of Seubert. The small laurel of Portugal and the Mediterranean region (Laurus nobilis) is quite close to the Madeiran tree, which today forms a species distinct from it, owing to geographical isolation and climatic influences, important factors in the separation of systematic forms.

Besides the four native lauraceae mentioned above, the following exotic species are found in Madeira: the avocado (Persea gratissima), the camphor tree (Cinnamomum Camphora) and the cinnamon tree (C. Zeilanicum). The camphor tree and the avocado are very common; the latter produces pear-shaped fruit, violet or green, much appreciated both by the Portuguese and by the foreigners who visit the island.

All the native lauraceae are evergreen, sprout well from the stump, grow quickly, live long and propagate perfectly from seed. The many qualities that recommend them lead us to believe that they will play an important part in reforesting the Madeiran mountains, today for the most part bare, if one day serious attention is given to carrying out this improvement. It has been talked about for so many years, and it truly deserves the attention of those whose offices allow them to promote the prosperity of the district.’