DAPHNE. A genii, of plants of the natural order Thymelea (1•41% containing 30 or 40 species of European or Asiatic shrubs Ilc small trees, some of which have deciduous and some ever green leaves: and all more or less acid in all their parts. which makes some of them even caustic. The berries are poisonous. but the flowers some are deliciously fragrant. To this genus belongs the Daphne inez,roon, well known both for the fragrance of its flowers and for its medicinal uses, naturalized in some places in England and escaped in Canada and the United States. The garou bush (Daphne gnidiunt), a native of the south of Europe, less hardy than the mezereon, has the same medicinal properties. The spurge-laurel (Daphne laureola), a native of Great Britain, is an evergreen shrub three to four feet high, with obovate-lanceolate leaves, which grow in tufts at the end of the branches, and give it a remarkable appearance. It grows well under the shade of trees. Daphne odora, a species in troduced from Japan. has lemon-scented leaves. Of species in cultivation, Daphne Ine,:ereon is the only one hardy as 'far north as New York. The evergreen specie!: are as a rule less hardy, though Daphne eta-orlon is fairly resistant. (For
illustration, see Plate of MouNTAIN PLANTS.) From the bark of some species of Daphne and of the most nearly allied genera paper is made in different parts of the East. particularly 'Nepal paper.' from that of Daphne eannabina. Slips of the inner bark are boiled in a lye of wood ashes for half an hour, till quite soft; are then reduced to a homogeneous pulp by beat ing with a wooden mallet in a mortar, churned with water into a thin paste. and poured through a coarse sieve upon a cloth stretched on a frame. The paper is subsequently polished by friction, with a shell or a piece of hard wood, and is remarkable for its toughness, smoothness, and durability. Most of the paper used in Tibet is made from the bark of different spe cies of Daphne and allied genera, particularly of Edgeworthia Gardneri, a beautiful shrub. with globes of waxy, cowslip-colored, deliciously fragrant flowers, growing on the Himalaya, at an elevation of 600(1 to 7000 feet. The bark of Lasiosiphon Madagaseariensis is made into paper and ropes in Madagasear.