540 THYMELE^. 



bark. It has the odour of the true drug, but differs from It by its grey 

 colour. 



The large separate cotyledons of two lauraceous trees of the Rio 

 Negro, doubtfully referred by Meissner to the genus Kectandr a, furnish 

 the so-called Sassafras ]\hifs or Puchury or Filckurim Beans of Brazil, 

 occasionally to be met with in old drug warehouses. 



On the Orinoko and in Guiana an oleo-resin, called Sassafras Oil or 

 Laurel Oil, is obtained by boring into the stem of Oreodaphne opifera 

 Nees, which sometimes contains a cavity holding a large quantity of 

 this fluid.^ A similar oil {Aceite de Sassafras) is afforded on the Rio 

 Negro by Nectandra Cymbarum Nees.'^ 



THYMELE^. 



CORTEX MEZEREI. 



Mezereon Bark; F. Ecorce de M(fzereon, Bois gentil ; G. Seidelbast- 



Rinde. 



Botanical Origin — Daphne Mezereurti L., an erect shrub, 1 to 3 

 feet high, the branches of which are crowded with purple flowers in the 

 early spring, before the full expansion of the oblong, lanceolate, de- 

 ciduous leaves. The flowers are succeeded by red berries. It is a 

 native of the hilly parts of almost the whole of Europe, from Italy to 

 the Arctic regions, and extends eastward to Siberia. In Britain it 

 occurs here and there in a few of the southern and midland counties, 

 and even reaches Yorkshire and Westmoreland, but there is reason to 

 think it is not truly indigenous. Gerarde, who was well acquainted 

 with it, did not regard it as a British plant. 



History — The Arabian physicians used a plant called Mdzamyun, 

 the effects of which they compared to those of euphorbium ; it was 

 probably a species of Daphne. The word nidzariyun is, we are told 

 by competent Arabic scholars, not of Arabic origin, but in all probability 

 derived from the Greek idiom, in which however we are unable to trace 

 its origin. D. Mezereuni was known to the early botanists of Europe, 

 as Daphnoides Chamcelwa, Thymelcea, Chamcvdaphne. Tragus de- 

 scribed it and figured it in 1546 under the name of Mezereuni Ger- 

 manicuin. The bark had a place in the German pharmacy of the l7th 

 century under the name of cortex Coccognidii s. Mezerei; the berries 

 were the Cocca gnidia s. knidia of the old pharmacy. 



Description — Mezereon has a very tough and fibrous bark easily 

 removed in long strips which curl inwards as the}'' dry ; it is collected 

 in winter and made up into rolls or bundles. The bark, which rarely 

 exceeds -^j^ of an inch in thickness, has an internal greyish or reddish- 

 brown corky coat which is easily separable from a green inner layer, 

 white and satiny on the side next the wood. That of younger branches 

 is marked with prominent leaf-scars. The bark is too tough to be 

 broken, but easily tears into fibrous strips. When fresh, it has an 



* Brit. Guiana at the Paris Exhibition, - Spruce in Hooker's Journ. of Bat. ^^i. 



1878, Sect. C. p. 7. (1855)278. 



