718 ORD. XLII. Veprecule. DAPHNE MEZEREUM. 
THE Mezereon is a hardy shrub, which usually grows to the 
height of five or six feet, and sends off several branches; the ex- 
terior bark is smooth, and of a grey colour; the root is of a fibrous 
texture, of a pale colour, and covered with smooth olive-coloured 
bark; the leaves are few, tender, lance-shaped, sessile, deciduous, 
and appear at the terminations of the branches after the flowers 
are expanded; the flowers surround the branches in thick clusters, 
they are sessile, monopetalous, tubular, having the limb divided 
into four oval spreading segments, commonly of a purple colour; 
the stamina are eight, alternately shorter, and concealed within 
the tube of the corolla; the style is very short, the stigma flat, 
and the germen, which is oval, becomes a reddish berry, con- 
taining a round seed. This shrub is a native of England, though 
not very common. It is said to grow plentifully in some woods 
near Andover in Hampshire, and also about Laxfield in Suffolk ; 
but nie generally cultivated in gardens, on atcount of the beauty 
and earliness of its flowers, which appear in February arid March. 
This plant is extremely acrid, especially when iresh, and if re- 
tained in the mouth excites great and long continued heat and 
inflammation, particularly of the throat and fauces; the berries 
also have the same effects, and, when swallowed, prove a powerful 
corrosive poison, not only to man,* but to dogs,* wolves, foxes,‘ 
&c. The bark and berries of Mezereon, in different forms, have 
been long externally used to obstinate ulcers and ill-conditioned 
sores. In France the former is strongly recommended as an appli- 
cation to the skin, which under certain management“ produces a 
* Muliereule ruri_baccas Coccumgnidii propinant in morbis’ rebellibus, sape 
effectu deleterio. Bergius us M.M.»_307. A woman gave twelve grains of the berries 
to her daughter, who had a quartan ague; she vomited blood, and died immediately. 
Wither, }, ec. As the acrimony of these berrries is not bnediatsly perceived. upon 
being tasted, the ignorant and unwary are the more easily betrayed to swallow them. 
» Haller I. c. * Lin. Fl. Lap. p. 105. 
¢ As some may wish to try this practice, which is unknown to this country, and 
promises beneficial effects in several complaints, we shall briefly recite the usual 
mode in which it has been conducted:—A_ square piece of the recent bark, about 
