Laurel Leaves or Bay Leaves

Below are a couple of descriptions of Laurel leaves and Bay leaves, not to be confused with the Cherry-Laurel leaves used in medicine in the 19th century.

Laurel Leaves, the leaves of the tree Laurus nobilis. They are also known as Bay leaves and are used in cookery for the purposes of flavoring; the better qualities of figs always com packed with a few bay leaves placed at the top of each box to repel an insect which is very destructive to the fruit. The leaves are of a dark, shining green color, wavy on the margin and pleasantly aromatic.
Source: What The Grocers Sell Us. ©1880

Bay leaves are often mentioned in the receipts for cookery. As there is soma confusion with respect to the name, it is necessary to put this matter in a clear light. The name of Bay has been applied to two trees very different. The proper laurel trea (Laurus nobilis, Linn.), the classical laurel, is commonly called the bay-tree, or sweet bay-tree; but its leaves, though slightly aromatic, are harmless, and are seldom, if ever, employed in cookery. A species of the genus Prunus (Prunus laurus-cerasus. Linn.), a kind of cherry-tree, has leaves much resembling those of the laurel, whence the name lauro-cerasus, or cherry laurel; this is also sometimes called bay, and is the sort employed for its flavour. The cherry laurel is an evergreen tree, cultivated in gardens; its leaves are large, thick, oblong, glossy, pointed at both ends, and slightly indented. These latter leaves have a bitter styptic taste, accompanied with a flavour resembling that of bitter almonds, or other kernels of the drupaceous fruits. This kernel like flavour being agreeable, has occasioned them to be employed for culinary purposes, especially in custards, puddings, blanc mange, &c, and then, as the proportion of the sapid matter of the leaf is usually diluted in a large proportion of milk, bad effects have seldom or never ensued from its use. But as the Prussic acid developed by the action of water on laurel leaves is known to be a violent poison, it is necessary that the public should be cautioned with respect to its properties, lest too much should be used on some occasions; since in the process of making laurel water by distillation it is sufficiently powerful to occasion death, and persons have been poisoned bv drinking laurel water by mistake.
Source: The American Family Encyclopedia of Useful Knowledge ©1856