168 THE PEOTEA FAMILY. 



yellow and scentless flowers, each of which is accompanied by an oval 

 and concave bract. Berries ovate and blueish-black. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 Formerly abundant on a woody bank near the Bollin, below Cot- 

 terill, but now almost extirpated by the herb-doctors, who have 

 already destroyed it once, the present plants being only seedlings. 

 Found also, but very sparingly, near Leigh. (Mr. Joseph Caldwell.) 

 Common in gardens and plantations. Fl. March, April. 

 Curtis, iv. 607 ; E. B. ii. 119. 



The true mezereon, or Daphne mezereum, (E. B. xx. 1881.) the cheerful, red 

 or white, and sweetly fragrant blossoms of which come out so thick upon the 

 long, bare branches in the very earliest dawn of spring, is the second of the two 

 English species, being found wild in the southern counties, though here only an 

 inmate of the garden. Its perfume is surpassed, though it seems impossible, by 

 that of the exotic Daphne Cneorum, and several green-house species. Under 

 glass, the family is represented chiefly by the exquisite Gnidias and Pimeleas of 

 New HoUand, along with species of Ddls and Struthiola. 



XLVII.— THE PROTEA FAMILY. Protedcea:. 



Shrubs, and in their native countries often large trees, ornamenting 

 New Holland and the Cape of Good Hope with some of their finest 

 and most remarkable vegetation. Several hundred species have been 

 named, a large proportion of them being cultivated in conservatories, 

 where the neatness of their appearance, and the oddity of their flowers 

 and inflorescence, cause them to be much prized. They are remark- 

 able for their hard, dry, leathery, and evergreen leaves, often serrated 

 in a very curious and peculiar manner; the foliage, taken along 

 with the irregular and tetramerous flowers, which consist of a 

 tubular calyx only, with four stamens and a single pistil, sufficing in 

 every instance to stamp the family. A happier name than Protea 

 could not have been bestowed upon them, for in no family is there 

 such diversity as severs the Bdnksias, the Drymidras, the GreviUeas, 

 the Leucadendrons, and the forty other genera that compose it. 

 Leucadendron argcnteum is called the silver-tree, on account of the 

 brilliant whiteness of its silky folijigc. 



