DAPH'NE MEZE'BEUM. 
MEZEBEON. 
Class. 
OCTANDRIA. 
Order. 
monogynia. 
Natural Order. 
TH YMELACEjE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers 
Habit. 
Inhabits 
England. 
4 feet. 
Feb. to Apr. 
Shrub. 
Woods. 
No. 1220. 
Daphne is the Greek name of the Laurel, and 
although plants were frequently named by the Greeks 
after certain of their fabled deities; in this instance 
it seems to be pretty certain that the nymph — 
Daphne, was named after the plant. The common 
name mezereon, is said to be of Arabian origin, and 
was used by old authors to distinguish a shrub 
which it is now difficult to determine. Being trans- 
ferred by early English herbalists to our present 
plant it has become the established English name. 
Daphne mezereum has been frequently met with 
in English woods as a wild plant, and it is also in- 
diginous to France, Germany, and most of the 
northern parts of Europe ; although, in our gardens, 
it is rarely seen more than two feet high, it is said, 
sometimes to grow even to six feet, with spreading 
branches of corresponding extent. Of such size it 
would constitute a most attractive shrubberry plant, 
laden as it usually is, nearly all the year, either by 
its flowers or its brilliant scarlet berries. • It is some- 
what curious that the flowers produced in the spring- 
may be detected in the bud so early as the preced- 
ing midsummer. A variety is sometimes met with 
