PLATE XX. 



1. DAPHNE CXEORUM. 



TRAILING DAPHNE. 



This genus comprises plants of the lovr shrubby ornamental, 

 evergreen, and deciduous kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Octandria Moiwgyma, and ranks 

 in the natural order of Vepreculte. 



The characters are: that there is no calyx: the corolla one-pe- 

 lalled, funnel-form, withering, including the stamens: tube cylimiric, 

 imperforate, longer than the border : border four-cleft ; divisions 

 ovate, acute, flat, spreading: the stamina have eight, short filaments, 

 inserted into the tube; the alternate ones lower: anthers roundish, 

 erect, two-celled: the pistillum is an ovate germ : style very short: 

 stigma headed, depressed-flat : the pericarpium a roundish one- 

 celled berry: (drupe berried superior;.) the seed sinsle, roundish, 

 fleshy. 



The species are : 1. D. Mezerew?!, Mezereon; 2. D. Laureola, 

 TVood or Spurge Laurel : 3. D. tartouraira. Silvery -leaved Daphne, 

 or Tartouraira: 4. D. cneorum. Trailing Daphne; o. D. odora. Sweet- 

 smelling Daphne. 



The first is a shrub, growing to the height of from three or four 

 to five or six feet, with a strong woody stalk, putting out manv 

 woody branches on ever}" side, so as to form a regular head. The 

 leaves are smooth, about two inches lonsr, and three quarters of an 

 inch broad in the middle, placed without order. The flowers come 

 out very early in the spring, before the leaves, in clusters all round 

 the shoots of the former year. The fruit is a superior berried drupe, 

 first green, then red, of an ovate-^lobuIar form; with a thin succu- 



