MOUNTAIN SOKEEL. 247 



The Golden Dock (R. maritimus), witli its yellow clusters, 

 does not grace our collection. It is a seaside plant. 



Neither have we any specimen of the Fiddle-leaved Dock 

 (R. pulcher). 



I cannot leave this family without rendering to them my 

 grateful acknowledgments for Nettle stings cured ; for, how- 

 ever scientific men may pooh-pooh the idea, I am certain that 

 the leaves of the Dock have a great effect in removing the 

 smarting from Nettle wounds. 



The Mountain Sorrel (Oxyria reniformis), is a small plant, 

 all green, and with kidney-shaped leaves. 



The Oleaster tribe comes next. There is only one British 

 member of it the Sea Buckthorn : this is a low shrub with 

 silver-lined leaves, green flowers, orange berries, ancf abundant 

 thorns. I have seen it in the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. 



The foreign families of this tribe are of more importance. 

 Two species which bear brown berries are cultivated in Persia, 

 and their fruit sold under the name of Zinzeyd, and the Orange 

 fruit of another species is eaten in India and China. The fruit of 

 the rest of the tribe is very soft and insipid. The blossoms of 

 the species called "Olivier de Boheme" are exceedingly fragrant. 



The Laurel tribe is closely allied to this, but, having no 

 British representative, it has no place in our native botany. 



The Camphor, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg, as well as the Daphne 

 of the ancients, belong to this Laurel tribe. This is the Daphne 

 into which, as Ovid describes, Apollo's nymph was transformed. 



" Be thou the prize of honour and renown, 

 The deathless poet and the poem crown. 

 Thou shalt returning Caesar's triumph grace, 

 When pomps shall in a long procession pass, 

 Wreath'd on the posts before his palace wait, 

 And be the sacred guardian of the gate. 

 Secure from thunder, and unharmed by Jove, 

 Unfading as th* immortal powers above ; 

 And as the locks of Pho?,bus are unshorn, 

 So shall perpetual green thy boughs adorn." 



The true DAPHNE order have Laurel-like leaves and tough 



