DAPHNE.] THYMEL^ACE^. 353 



ORDER LXIV. THYMEL-ffiA'CEJE. 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees ; juice acrid ; inner bark tenacious. Leaves 

 alternate or opposite, quite entire, exstipulate. Flowers 2-sexual (rarely 

 polygamous), solitary fascicled cymose or capitate. Perianth inferior, 

 throat naked or bearing scales glands or staminodes ; lobes 4-5, imbricate 

 in bud. Stamens 2, 4, 8, or 10, adnate in 1-2 series to and included 

 within the perianth-tube, when equalling its lobes alternate with them. 

 Disk or of 4-8 hypogynous scales or glands. Ovary free, 1- rarely 

 2-celled ; style terminal or lateral, stigma capitate ; ovules 1-3, pendulous, 

 anatropous. Fruit a drupe or berry (rarely capsular). Seed pendulous, 

 testa thin or crustaceous, albumen scanty or ; embryo straight, coty- 

 ledons plano-convex, radicle short superior. DISTRIB. Temp, and trop. 

 regions ; genera 40 ; species about 300. AFFINITIES. WiihJSlceagnaccce, 

 Proteacece, and Santalacece. PROPERTIES acrid. 



1. DAPH'NE, L. 



Shrubs, rarely tall. Leaves usually alternate and persistent. Flowers 

 odorous, honeyed. Perianth tubular ; lobes 4, spreading ; throat naked. 

 Stamens 8, subsessile, 2-seriate ; anthers fixed by the back. Style 

 subterminal, short or 0. Fruit coriaceous or fleshy. Testa crustaceous. 

 DISTRIB. Europe, 1ST. Africa, temp. Asia ; species about 50. ETYM. 

 doubtful. 



1. D. Laure'ola, L. ; leaves evergreen, flowers fascicled in the upper 

 leaf-axils green glabrous. Spurge Laurel. 



Copses and hedgebanks in stiff soils, from Durham to Devon and Kent ; 

 Channel Islands; fl. Jan.-April. Shrub 1-3 ft., leafless below, branches 

 few. Leaves 2-5 in., very coriaceous, obovate-lanceolate, acute, subsessile. 



ov . 



N. Africa, W. Asia. Berry very poisonous. 



2. D. Meze'reum, L. ; leaves deciduous, flowers appearing before the 

 leaves clustered on the branches pink silky. Mezereon. 



Copses and woods, perhaps native in the S. ; (an alien or denizen, Wats.} ; 

 fl. Feb.- April. Shrub 2-4 ft. ; branches few, erect. Leaves 2-3 in., obovate- 

 or spathulate-lanceolate, acute, membranous, petioled. Flowers usually 

 3-nate, subsessile in the axils of the last year's leaves, very fragrant, rarely 

 white ; bracts small. Perianth J in. diam., tube as long as the lobes. Fruit 

 % in., bright red, ovoid. DISTBIB. Europe (excl. Greece), Siberia. Acrid 

 and poisonous ; leaves used as a vesicant ; berries cathartic. 



