226 



N. Ord. THYMELACE.E. 



Genus Daphne, Linn. 



226. Daphne Laureola,* Linn., Sp. Plant, ed. 1, P . 357 (1753). 



Spurge Laurel. 



Figures, Hayne, iii, t. 44; Nees, t. 126; Syme, E. Bot., viii, t. 1247 

 Hook. Curt. Fl. Lond., v, t. 206; Reich., Ic. FJ. Germ., xi, t. 555. 



Description. A small bushy shrub, 1 3 feet high, with ascend- 

 ing, slender, flexible branches ; bark smooth, tough, yellowish 

 grey; terminal buds large, quite glabrous. Leaves evergreen, 

 alternate, rather closely placed towards the ends of the branches 

 which are bare below, somewhat drooping, scarcely stalked, 3 5 

 inches long, narrowly obovate-lanceolate, bluntly pointed, atte- 

 nuated below, entire, thick and leathery, perfectly smooth, bright 

 green, paler and with a very prominent midrib beneath. Flowers 

 very shortly stalked, 3 8 together, forming small umbellate 

 clusters at the extremities of short, somewhat drooping peduncles, 

 provided with several broad, blunt, overlapping, pale-green, con- 

 cave bracts, and coming from the axils of the upper leaves of the 

 previous year. Perianth not 4 inch long, about J inch wide, 

 pale yellowish green, the segments not half as long as the tube, 

 smooth, otherwise as in D. Mezereum. Stamens and pistil as in 

 the last, but style somewhat longer ; anthers orange. Fruit 

 about \ inch long, ovoid, scarcely pointed, shortly stalked, nearly 

 black, structure as in D. Mezereum. 



Habitat. This attractive little shrub is a native of England, 

 occurring not unfrequently on hedgebanks and in woods and copses 

 chiefly on a calcareous or clay soil in most of the counties south of 

 Durham ; in Scotland it is not considered to be spontaneous. It 

 is very frequently planted in shrubberies for ornament, being one 

 of the few shrubs which will grow under the drip of large trees. 

 Abroad it is found throughout Western and Southern Europe, 



* Laureola, a mediaeval name signifying a small laurel ; from its foliage. 



