642 MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



THYME^AEACEAE. Mezereum Family. 



Shrubs or small trees with acrid, tough, fibrous bark, simple opposite entire 

 leaves; flowers in spikes or umbels, regular; calyx petal-like, tube, urn-shaped; 

 petals present or absent; stamens twice as many as the lobes of the calyx, and 

 borne on it; ovary free, 1 -celled and 1-ovuled; fruit a berry-like drupe; embryo 

 straight; endosperm scanty or none. 



About 400 species of wide distribution, most largely represented in Australia 

 and South Africa. The leatherwood or moosewood (Dirca palustris) with a 

 tough fibrous bark, is used by the Indians for thongs. The Mezereum (Daphne 

 Mezereum) with fragrant flowers and bright red berries, of Europe, naturalized 

 from Europe in New England, and the handsome D. Cneorum, with rosephik 

 flowers, are cultivated. The berries and leaves of the Mezereum cause blister- 

 ing; it is an acrid poison. Bark paper (D. cannabina) native of the Himalayas 

 to Japan, produces a tough bark which is made into paper. Lace-bark (Lagetta 

 Untearia) of Jamaica, with bark that separates into layers, was formerly used 

 for veils, bonnets, etc. The bark of Wikstroemia viridiflora, of the Polynesian 

 Islands, is used for making fishing nets, ropes, etc. The bark of Funifera utilis 

 of Brazil, causes vesication like that produced by the Dirca palustris. Several 

 exotic plants of the family are poisonous like the Pimelia trichostachya of 

 Australia. The fruit and leaves of Gnidia caritwta are emetic. 



Daphne, L. Laurel 



Shrubs, with alternate leaves, and small purple, pink, or white flowers in 

 fascicles, heads or racemes; perianth tubular, with 4 spreading lobes; stamens 

 8, attached to the calyx tube; filaments very short; disk none; ovary sessile; 

 stigma large ; calyx deciduous or persistent. About 40 species, native of Europe 

 and Asia. 



Daphne Mezereum, L. Spurge Laurel. Lady Laurel. 



A small shrub with young twigs somewhat pubescent; leaves thin, oblong- 

 lanceolate, or oblanceolate, petioled; flowers in sessile fascicles, very fragrant; 

 perianth-tube pubescent, rose-purple; drupe red. 



Distribution. Escaped from cultivation from Quebec to New York, native 

 to Europe and Asia; frequently cultivated as an ornamental plant. 



Poisonous properties. Some of the European species, like Daphne Cneorum 

 contain acrid poisons. The plant produces blisters. The bark is used internally 

 and in the form of an ointment. According to Loudon, in France the bark is 

 applied to the skin for the purposes of a "perpetual blister." The bark, when 

 fresh or when soaked in water, reddens the skin, when applied to it, and at 

 length occasions vesicles followed by ulcers. Oesterlein remarked that all parts 

 of the plant produced, on contact, irritation and inflammation. Schimpfky men- 

 tions this among the twenty-six important poisonous plants of Europe and 

 states that the bark and berries are most poisonous, and that the pleasant odor 

 of the flowers produces headache, for which reason, therefore, they should not 

 be placed in a living room. Linnaeus seems to have recorded cases of poison- 

 ing from this plant. Daphne contains the glucoside daphnin, C 30 H g4 O in , bitter 

 and astringent, an acrid resin mesereln, daphne tin (C 9 H 6 O 4 )H O, also with an 

 astringent taste, coccognin C 20 H 22 O 8 , and the glucoside acsculin, C 15 H 16 O S + 

 H 2 O. Friedberger and Frohner state that animals poisoned by the Daphne 

 have stomatitis, slavering, colic and a feeble pulse. In Europe the fruit is 



