424 



THVMEL/EACE/E 



water into strong lace patterns. UcipJiiie japoiUia, D. iiidua, and 

 other species are commonly cultivated, in conservatories and 

 gardens for the sake of the delicious fragrance of their blossoms. 

 The berries of the Spurge Laurel {Daphne Laureola), the com- 

 moner of the two S[)eries which represen.t the Order in Britain, 

 are poisonous to all animals except birds;; and both the bark and 

 root of the other Ijritish Species, the Mezereon (Ddpline 

 Mezereuin), though used in medicine, are very violent in their 

 effects. 



L).\PH.\E (.Spurge 



Shrubs 



with leaves usually 

 scattered and ever- 

 green : flowers frag- 

 rant ; pcriaulh tubu- 

 lar, with 4 spreading 

 lobes ; stamens 8, 

 sub-sessile, includ- 

 ed. (Name, the 

 Greek for a Laurel, 

 which it resembles 

 in its fjliage.) 



I . L>. Alezereiim _ 

 (M e z e' r e o n). — A 

 shrub with few erect 

 hranelies ; very frag- 

 rant, pink floivers, 

 sessile, 3 together, 

 aiipearing before 

 the leaves ; leaves 

 stalked, obovate, 

 acute, not ever- 

 green : fruit red, 

 oxoid. — ^\"oods ; 

 very rare.--ri. February — April. Perennial. 



2. D. Laureola (Spurge J.aurel). — A J.ow shrub, about 2 feet 

 high, very little branched, and remarkable for its smooth, erect 

 stems, which are hare of leaves except at the summit. The leaves 

 are smooth, shining, leathery, and evergreen ; the flowers green, in 

 drooping, axillary clusters, ami in nnld' weather fragrant ; the 

 hemes lilack, o\'oid, and poisonous — \\',n()ds ; not common. If 

 transiilanted Irom the woods and potfed, it mav be employed 

 with advantage as a stock on whicli to graft D. ineliea. The 

 operation should lie carried out in sjiring, whh the leafy extremity 

 of a sliDot ratlirr less in diameter than the stock. Hybrids 



