August 05, 1962 - BayberryBayberry
Exclusive. Sunday Review Sketch by Marie Wheeler of East Marion.
Focus on Nature by Paul Stoutenburgh, Cutchogue
By JUDD BENNETT
In those stretches just land-
ward of the coastal sands and
gravels and under the shadows
of soaring gulls are the scatter,
ings of the lowest growth of the
n a t i v e Bayberry. Into t h e
warmed redolent air of the beach
span the aromatic Bayberry adds
its singular fragrance to the
odors of the shore. The pungent
smells peculiar only to the bands
of wetted rocks, sands, gravels,
windrowed flotsam and drift are
but little modified by the plant
growth holding out nearby. The
Bayberry has the sweeter fainter
odor of this odd world.
The Bayberry is one of the
most unique of the coastal plants
and is a hardy shrub growing
low, compact and dense with a
deep rich sheen and a c I e a n
bright green. It grows easily in
this multi- mixtured tangle of
plants so tolerant and tough that
they 'thrive in areas just short
of the richer true soil of lands
where the sands and boulders
fade out. Here beach g r o w t h
directly confronts nature a n d
whim — whims that are some-
times docile with deadened still -
nesst — sometimes violent with
lively turmoil, calms and storms
— all whims of waters and
winds.
Before the first of the Bay-
berry can find and gain a hold
there are ranked glassworts,
Ibeach grasses, roses and others
tough and wiry thriving on the
ridged lean sands. The battered
seacoast vegetation then blends
into stands grown dense where
the larger, rounded and massed
bushy drifts of Bayberry grow
thicker and higher. They a r e
here less windshaped and have
less of the stunted and strange
beauty of those in the struggle
That shaped them to look so
Tight for the dunes, banks and
downs.
The scented Sweet Fern often
appears in association with Bay -
berry for- they are closely related
and share the similiar treeless
tertain with its difficukies of in-
fertility. The poorer soils have
an odd effect in that most plants
with a definite fragrance, which
would include most of t h o s e
Touched with an herbal ihrterest,
are dependent upon this struggle
for essence power. Most of them
have rare fiegance and flavor
and, any or all of them are
with distinction. The dry spent
soil brings out the finest of these
qualities so unique and based in
the volatile oils.
The fragrant pale gray waxy
berries produced to be seeds for
the Bayberry grow in t i g h t
clusters on extremely short stems
along the upper, parts of t h e
woody branches. From t h e r e
they were stripped out and gath-
ered for use by the early set-
tlers. They were used in many
and varied ways. The best known
is the use of the wax for candles.
Even in those days these green-
ish And scented candles were
choice and rare, enough so, to
be lighted only for special oc-
casions. The candles were some-
times repeatedly snuffed out and
relighted to add more of t h e
admired scent. Some few with
enthusiasm carry on the ritual
to this day.
And, Bayberry candles s t i l l
are made and used during the
winter holidays to, in some way,
recall the graces of days long
gone and summer days j u s t
passed when these berries be-
came richly coated with wax in
that warmth. The odor of the
wax is subtle, clean and of a
rare sweet essence. In the fra-
grance is the pleasant scent of
the sun - warmed open wilds.
During colonial days even of
the earliest date Bayberry was
considered picturesque as we 1 I
as. having an importance beyond
the common ordinary plants of
the New World. They were an
item of commerce. It was the
colonials who called it Candle -
berry and not less often Wax
Myrtle while some individualists
spoke of Waxberry and Tallow -
berry. None very distant of the
candle use. The beautiful name
Bayberry in use today, especially
on Long Island, was common too.
The New Englanders also mad
a medical ointment from t h e
resinous berries and derived fro
The thickened longish trailing and
creeping roots a decoction they
considered worth a try for aches
of all sorts. In the late years
of 1700 a doctor, his saddle bag
kits still preserved, carried vials
of ground Bayberry beries and
bark. He used these as a mild
stimulant and simple astringent
but in larger doses as an emetic
— less of a killing dose for a
throat gargle. Teas were brewed
from the leaves and in it tired
trusting colonials had a steamy
aromatic draft for the unduly
chilled.
These clustered berries with a
frosted look have also a legend
— one of happiness and good
luck in their use. People were
keenly aware of the old belief
and after the wax for the candles
was made and the molds filled,
the extraction of greenish wax,
gotten by a boiling down and a
skimming off, was then a 1 s o
added to the soap chore. They
scented their best soap batches
— dyed their better woolens a
color nearly blue — gave their
s e a I i n g wax a perfumed fra-
gr-ance. All this from the berry.
Then, being fully with scent, the
aromatic leaves were not wasted
— they thought of them for hints
of flavor and spicimgs — boiled
them to gain from the steeped
brew a dye of yellow color, —
all by dint of industry a n d
shrewdness and with expediency
thrown in. This somehow all came
out well and was worth the trou-
ble. It is no little task to gather
the berries.
That the Bayberry was a treas-
ured plant is obvious and made
no less pointedly evident by the
people of Brookhaven town in
1687. Brookhaven was serious
about all this and even threat-
ened, with a fifteen shillings fine,
anyone foolish enough to start
gathering baskets and buckets
for the take before the t o w n
fathers said go — on the fifteenth
of September.
There is cause to wonder about
these harvests when we see each
year migrating hundreds of Tree
Swallows feeding on the berries
leaving the 'bushes stripped.
Some years are not favorable
but when conditions are good the
shrubs bear heavily and these
nutlets are a major migration —
time food for these swallows. The
Myrtle Warbler also seek them
for a fall food and by so doing
live up to their name gotten from
this very Wax Myrtle. M a n y
others of the birds eat of them
sparingly and Deer will t a k e
twigs and foliage as 'browse. The
good Praying Mantis f e m a l e
fastens her egg case and eats
her mate on the branches too.
There are all told seven Myrica
species native to the U n i t e d
States, one for the Pacific and
six for this coast. On the coasta
areas the Bayberry are expected
but they grow locally inland for
many miles. Now and then this
sweet smelling shrub grows into
a form twelve to fourteen. feet
high with most of the foliage
at the- top giving the branched
trunks the appearance of a small
gray - barked tree.
Some cooks have been known
to toss native Bayberry leaves
into their bubbling stews. They
are misguided. What they need
most, beyond a Laurel "Sweet
Bay" leaf, is a very stort botany
l e s s o n for, some kind of un-
scrambling.
An acquaintance now far from
the sea and living in the con-
tinent's interior has f u s s e d
mightly over a beautiful h e r b
garden and in that garden's for-
mal center, is a special wooden
tub featuring the most carefully
tended Bayberry in the whole
world.
The natural growth of the Bay-
berry on Long Island is in some
places so billowy and lusty and,
stately enough to resemble the
gorgeous greens of a Bishop's
retreat. Anywhere on %be Island
handsome stands of the favored
Bayberry seem to have the air
of a cultured luxuriant evergreen.
Their fragrance is of the summer-
time and their wonderful wax is
surely of 'that season when all
this for, the year has passed into
only a remembrance.
FIELD OBSERVATIONS
Random Reports: August
Orient Harbor
From Fish Traps
Lump Fish
Hog Chocker
SDinv Boxfish