540 THYMELE^. 



bark. It lias the odour of the true drug, but differs from it by its grey 

 colour. 



The large separate cotyledons of two lauraceous trees of the Rio 

 Negro, doubtfully referred by Meissner to the genus Nectandra, furnish 

 the so-called Sassafras Nuts or PucJtury or Pilchurim Beans of Bvsizil, 

 occasionally to be met with in old drug warehouses. 



On the Orinoko and in Guiana an oleo-resin, called Sassafras Oil or 

 Laurel Oil, is obtained by boring into the stem of Oreodapline opifera 

 Nees, which sometimes contains a cavity holding a large quantity of 

 this fluid.^ A similar oil (Aceite de Sassafras) is afforded on the Rio 

 Negro by Nectandra CymbaruTn JSTees.^ 



THYMELE^. 



CORTEX MEZEREI. 



Mezereon Bark; F. Ecorce de 3Iezere'on, Bois gentil ; G. Seidelhast- 



Rinde. 



Botanical Origin — Daphne Mezeremn L., an erect shrub, 1 to 3 

 feet high, the branches of which are crowded with purple flowers in the 

 early spring, before the full expansion of the oblong, lanceolate, de- 

 ciduous leaves. The flowers are succeeded by red berries. It is a 

 native of the hilly parts of almost the whole of Europe, from Italy to 

 the Arctic regions, and extends eastward to Siberia. In Britain it 

 occurs here and there in a few of the southern and midland comities, 

 and even reaches Yorkshire and Westmoreland, but there is reason to 

 think it is not truly indigenous. Gerarde, who was well acquainted 

 with it, did not regard it as a British plant. 



History— The Arabian physicians used a plant called Mdzariyim, 

 the effects of which they compared to those of euphorbium; it was 

 probably a species of DapJme. The word mdzariyiln is, we are told 

 by competent Arabic scholars, not of Arabic origin, but in all probability 

 derived from the Greek idiom, in which however we are unable to trace 

 its origin. D. Mezereum was known to the early botanists of Europe, 

 as Daphnoides Chamcdwa, Tkymelcm, Chamoidaphne. Tragus de- 

 scribed it and figured it in 1540 under the name of Mezereum wr- 

 manicum. The bark had a place in the German pharmacy of the l7tn 



century under the name of cortex Coccognidii s. Mezerei; 

 were the Cocca gnidia s. hnidia of the old pharmacy. 



Description 



Mezereon has a very tough and fibrous bark easi} 

 removed in long strips which curl inwards as they dry ; it is coilectea 

 m winter and made up into rolls or bundles. The bark, which rueiy 

 exceeds ^V of an inch in thickness, has an internal greyish or redclisn 

 brown corky coat which is easily separable from a green inner laye ' 

 white and satiny on the side next the wood. That of younger wanc^, 

 18 marked with prominent leaf-scars. The bark is too tough W 

 broken, but easily tears into fibrous strips. When fresh, it has . 



1 c^Q^'? PT"" ^* ^^^*^' I^'-^i's Kxhibition, 2 Spruce in Hoolrr's Journ. of Bot. «'• 



18/8, Sect. C. p. 7. (1855)278. 



