CANDLEMAS TIDE. 41 



FEB. 10. St. ScHOLASTiCA, virgin, a.d. 543. 

 St. Soteris, virgin, martyr in 4th age. 

 St. William of Maleval, hermit in 1157. 

 St. Eurluph, bp. martyr. 



Obs. St. Scholastica was sister to the great St. Benedict, and she 

 consecrated herself from her earliest youth to a religious life. She 

 retreated to Plombareola about the time that her brother was 

 establishing the monks of his newly created Order on Mount Cassino. 

 She had her nunnery about five miles therefore from her brother's 

 monastery. 



St. Soteris was related to St. Ambrose, and died a martyr. 



St. William of Maleval founded the Order of Gulielmites. 



Mezereon Daphne Mezereon flowers. 



This elegant shrub in early and mild seasons begins now to be in 

 flower, and its compact bush of pink blossoms without any leaves 

 makes a conspicuous figure standing up amid the flowerless and 

 leafless bushes of a primaveral garden. Perhaps the average period 

 of its flowering is the month of March, but it is often in flower today, 

 and even much earlier. The best time for transplanting this shrub 

 is the autumn, because as it begins to vegetate early in the spring, 

 it should not be then disturbed. It thrives best in a dry soil. 



The Daphne Mezereon is also called Spurge Olive, German 

 Olive Spurge, Spurge Flax, Flowering Spurge, and Dwarf Bay. 

 Most of the European languages give it a name equivalent to Female 

 Bay. The French call it Laureole femelle, Laureole gentille, Bois 

 joli, Bois gentille, Malherbe; in the villages, Dzentelliet. The 

 Italians, Daphnoide, Laureola femina, Biondella, Camelea, and 

 Calmolea, 



The Mezereon is a handsome shrub : the flowers coming out be- 

 fore the leaves, early in the spring ; they grow in clusters all round 

 the shoots of the former year. Cowper says of it : 



Though leafless well attired, and thick beset 

 With blushing wreaths, investing every spray. 



It is a native of almost every part of Europe, and is very common 

 in the beech woods in Buckinghamshire. The name Mezereon is 

 said to have been of Dutch origin. 



The branches of the Daphne Mezereon make a good yellow dye. 

 The berries are a powerful poison, but the bark is a very useful and 

 valuable mediciue. The two principal varieties of this species of 

 the Daphne are the whiteflowered, which has yellow berries, and 

 the peachcoloured, of which the berries are red. 



The Mezereon has a sweet scent. There are several foreign 

 species of the genus Daphne, which takes its name from the fable in 

 Ovid's Metamorphoses. 



£2 



