440 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
causticity, which resides in the bark, which is very tough, and 
applitable to the purposes of cordage; thus Daphne Lagetta, the 
Lace Bark tree of Jamaica, is remarkable for the beauty of the 
inner fibre of its bark, and for the facility with which it is sepa- 
rated into layers and meshes, which by lateral stretching become 
equal in delicacy to the finest lace. The bark of Gnidia Daph- 
noides is manufactured in Madagascar into ropes; and a soft paper 
is made from the inner bark of Daphne Bholua, in Nepal, and 
from Daphne Cannabina,in China. Others, as Passarina tinctoria 
and Daphne Gnidium, yield a yellow die, used to colour wool in 
the South of Europe. The Mezereon of the garden (Daphne 
_ Mezerium), a deciduous plant, with spikes of white or purple flowers 
appearing on the plant before the leaves unfold, which is found 
wild in the mountain forests of the middle and south of Europe, 
yields berries of a smooth, shining, and bright red, which are 
extremely acrid and even poisonous. Linnzeus speaks of a person 
having been poisoned by eating a dozen Mezerium berries. They 
are employed in Sweden to poison wild animals; and in Russia 
it is asserted that the Tartar women rub their cheeks with the 
berries to heighten their colour,—a permanent species of rouge. _ 
The Spurge Laurel of our hedgerows and woods is a handsome 
evergreen bush, with greenish flowers growing in clusters, con- 
cealed by the leaves, and have the appearance of the laurel. 
The Prorzace® are distinguished from Daphne by the hard 
woody texture of their leaves, their irregular tubular calyx, with 
valvate wstivation. Brown considers that the radicle pointing 
towards the base of the fruit is a distinguishing feature. The - 
order is named from the diversity of appearance presented by 
the several genera composing it. They are generally handsome 
evergreen shrubs, much prized by gardeners for the beauty and 
singularity of their flowers. Many of the genera are named after 
distinguished botanists, and their geographical distribution 18 
extremely interesting. They are almost entirely confined to 
the larger continents of the southern hemisphere, being found 
in New Zealand, New Caledonia, and wherever the shores of 
Australia have been explored, the Proteaceous plants have been 
found; the great proportion of the order existing there in the 
same latitude as the Cape of Good Hope. On the south-east 
coast it forms the chief feature in the vegetation; the Grevellias, 
