376 MEZEEEUM FAMILY. 



gent or zigzag branches, rather coriaceous oval or oblong leaves (j'-l' 

 long), appearing later than the flowers in spring; these in little crowded 

 clusters of 2-4 from 2-4-leaved involucres ; fruit red, globular. 



4. LINDERA, SPICEBUSH, WILD ALLSPICE, PEVERBUSH. 

 {John Linder, a Swedish botanist.) Shrubs ; flowers in spring, pre- 

 ceding the leaves. 



L. Benzdin, Blume. Common S. or Benjamin Bush. Damp rich 

 woods N. Eng., W. and S.; 6°-16° high, almost smooth; leaves thin, 

 obovate-oblong, acute at base, 3'-5' long. 



L. melisseefdlia, Blume. Wet grounds, N. Car., W. and S.; 2°-3° 

 high, silky-pubescent ; leaves oblong, obtuse or slightly heart-shaped at 

 base, l'-2' long; when old, smooth above. 



C. THYMELEACE.E, MEZEEEUM FAMILY. 



Shrubs with acrid and very tough fibrous bark, entire leaves, 

 and perfect flowers with a simple corolla-like calyx, bearing 

 twice as many stamens as its lobes (usually 8), the anthers 

 of the ordinary sort; the free ovary 1-celled, with a single 

 hanging ovule, becoming a berry-like fruit. Elowers commonly 

 in umbel-like clusters. 



1. DIRCA. Calyx tubular, -without any spreading lobes, the wavy-truncate border some- 



times obscurely indicating 4 teeth. The 8 stamens and the style long and slender, 

 protruding. 



2. DAPHNE. Calyx salver-shaped or somewhat funnel-shaped; the 4 lobes spreading, 



the 8 anthers nearly sessile on its tube, included. Style very short or none ; stigma 

 capitate. 



1. DIRCA, LEATHEEWOOD, MOOSEWOOD. (Name obscure.) 



D. palustris, Linn. Shrub 2°-6° high, with tender white wood, but 

 very tough bark, used by the Indians for thongs (whence the popular 

 names), the numerous branches as if jointed; leaves obovate or oval, 

 alternate, nearly smooth, deciduous ; flowers before the leaves in earliest 

 spring, honey-yellow, few in a cluster from a bud of 3 or 4 dark-hairy 

 scales forming an involucre ; berry reddish. Eich damp woods ; common 

 N. and S. 



2. DAPHNE. (Mythological name, the nymph transformed by Apollo 

 into a Laurel.) The following are cult, for ornament. 



* Leaves deciduous. 



D. Mezereum, Linn. Mezereum. Hardy low shrub from Eu.; l°-3° 

 high, with purple-rose-colored (rarely white) flowers, in lateral clusters 

 on shoots of the preceding year, in early spring, before the lanceolate 

 very smooth green leaves ; berries red. 



/ * * Leaves evergreen. 



D. Cneorum, Linn. Hardy under-shrub from Eu., spreading and 

 branching, with crowded lance-oblong or oblanceolate leaves (less than 

 1' long), and a terminal cluster of handsome rose-pink flowers in spring. 



