laurel

Glendurgan Valley Garden, in Cornwall, was created in the 1820s and 1830s by Alfred Fox. His successful Falmouth-based shipping company brought him exotic specimens from all over the world, many of which are still growing. The low-growing laurel maze, planted in 1833, has recently been restored.

Any of a group of European evergreen trees with glossy aromatic leaves, yellowish flowers, and black berries. The leaves of sweet bay or poet's laurel (L. nobilis) are used in cooking. Several species are cultivated worldwide. (Genus Laurus, family Lauraceae.)

California laurel (Umbellularia californica) of the western US belongs to a different genus in the laurel family.

Laurel

City in central Maryland, on the Patuxent River, 32 km/20 mi southwest of Baltimore and 29 km/18 mi northeast of Washington DC; population (1990) 19,400. It was settled in 1669, and had some industry, growing as a residential centre after World War II. Laurel Racecourse (horse racing; 1911) is here.

The area includes the communities of North Laurel (population (1990) 15,008), South Laurel (population (1990) 18,600), and West Laurel (population (1990) 4,200).

Laurel

City and joint administrative headquarters (with Ellisville) of Jones County, southeastern Mississippi, on Tallahala Creek, 122 km/76 mi southeast of Jackson; population (2000) 18,400. The Masonite Corporation, producing a hardboard made from sawmill waste, is a major industrial concern, and there are poultry and meatpacking plants and oil companies.

Founded in 1882 as a railway lumber camp, and named after the abundant native laurel shrubs, it became the world's largest shipping centre for yellow pine lumber by 1920. After the forests were cut down, by the end of the 1920s, the city faced economic collapse until the development of Masonite hardboard. Oil companies arrived here after the 1943 discovery of a field under Jones and adjacent counties.

During the American Civil War, Jones County (the ‘Free State of Jones’) was declared loyal to the Union, and fought its own war against the Confederate army.

Laurel

Community in east-central Virginia, 10 km/6 mi northwest of Richmond; population (1990) 13,000. It is a largely residential suburb.