the flowers, are numerous and scattered, lanceolate and wedge-shaped,growing on short footstalks, and about two inches long; being of a pale green colour.

The bark both of the stems and roots of the Mezereon has long afforded a stimulating decoction, used for various medicinal purposes. A peculiar principle has been obtained from it by Vanqueline, a French chemist, which he calls Daphnin, which has been for a long period in use as a remedy for tooth-ache and other purposes. The berries were considered by Linnæus to be of a highly poisonous nature. The bark is also used in the South of Europe to impart a yellow die.

The Mezereon long ago obtained an introduction to the flower garden, and is an especial favourite with the humble cottager who may have a small spot of ground attached to his well-thatched cottage, upon the whitewashed walls of which, and round the latticed window, we see the bright green branches of jasmine, and of honeysuckle, and of roses, trained with care, and as the seasons revolve in their ceaseless course, one after another, these shrubs cheer with their flowers and their fragrance the hearts of the toiling peasant and his family. To such the Mezereon brings the remembrance of the first link in the train of changing days and seasons, and in imagination they see the succession of flowers blooming before them for the coming year. Moments of joy are these to them; for the peasantry delight in the open air and the sunshine, and the choral music of the birds, as they sing their varied notes in woodland and in grove: the glorious sun, as he rises amid silvery clouds, or sets beneath the goldentinted sky, animates them with unspeakable pleasure.

The fair authoresses of the "Bouquet des Souvenirs" in a few lines record the fact that this flower affords gratification to all on its first appearance in the season.

Thou hast thy wish; all love to see
Thy simple bloom, Mezereon tree;
The thrush his sweetest minstrelsy
Is pouring forth to welcome thee;
Thy store of sweets, the early bee
Hath sought with ready industry;
And prizing much thy beauty, we
Are come to greet thee joyously.

Long shalt thou hold thy gentle sway;
For when thy wreaths must fade away
Beneath the Summer's scorching ray,
Thy stems shall glow in vesture gay
With scarlet berries, rich array.

Please, then, fair plant, through many a day,
Till winter stern thy doom shall say,

Whose voice the fairest must obey.

We are now writing in the middle of December, and the weather is so mild that we see growing in the open air the primrose, and the Forget-me-not, and the garden anemone; an extraordinary season certainly, but not unprecedented, as we may infer from the circumstance that the following lines were written by Mrs. Tighe, on receiving, in December, a branch of Mezereon covered with flowers.

Odours of Spring, my sense ye charm

With fragrance premature,

And, 'mid these days of dark alarm,
Almost to hope allure.

Methinks with purpose soft ye come,

To tell of brighter hours,

Of May's blue skies, abundant bloom,
Of sunny gales and showers.

Alas! for me shall May in vain

The powers of life restore;

These eyes, that weep and watch in pain,

Shall see her charms no more.
No, no, this anguish cannot last!
Beloved friends, adieu!

The bitterness of death were past
Could I resign but you.

Oh! ye who soothe the pangs of death
With love's own patient care,
Still, still retain this fleeting breath,
Still pour the fervent prayer.
And ye, whose smiles must greet my eye

No more, nor voice my ear,

Who breathe for me the tender sigh,
And shed the pitying tear;

Whose kindness (though far, far removed)
Thy grateful thoughts perceive;
Pride of my life-esteemed, beloved,

My last sad claim receive!

Oh, do not quite your friend forget-
Forget alone her faults;

And speak of her with fond regret,

Who asks your lingering thoughts.

The Mezereon (Daphne Mezereum) is placed in the Linnæan class Octandria, and order Monogynia; and in the Natural order Thymeleæ.

MONK'S-HOOD.

Aconitum; Tournfort. L'aconit; Fr. Der sturmhut; Germ. Monnikskappen ; Dut. Aconito; Ital., Sp., and Port.

And such is man-a soil that breeds
Or sweetest flowers, or vilest weeds;
Flowers, lovely as the morning light,—
Weeds, deadly as the Aconite.

BOWRING.

WE have introduced the Monk's-hood here, rather on account of the singular form of the flower, than from any high regard for its beauty. It is said to be a native of the woody and mountainous parts of France, Germany, and Switzerland, but has been naturalized for so long a period, and is found in so many localities, that it long ago obtained a place in the English Flora. It is also very extensively cultivated in gardens, especially cottage gardens, and truly it is a very showy plant, for it rises with erect stem to the height of four feet and more, and towards the top of the stem the flowers grow thickly in a sort of spike or cluster. They are very numerous, of a dingy purple colour, and without fragrance.

Each flower is composed of five irregular petals, having a pretty close resemblance to a man's head, with a hood or helmet on it. The upper petal represents the hood or helmet; the two lower ones stand for that part which covers the jaw, and the two wings conceal the temples.

The part of the stem below the spike of flowers is furnished with an abundance of leaves, placed alternately, cut into many wedge-shaped lobes and linear

segments, dark green on the upper side, and of a pale green below.

The Monk's-hood, or Wolf's-bane, as it is also called, is a poisonous plant, as are all the rest of its family in a greater or less degree. They are indeed considered as the most powerful vegetable poisons known, and were regarded with terror and awe by the ancients. Virgil considered it a cause of congratulation that the plant was not indigenous to Italy; Dryden thus translates the lines, which are in the second Georgic:

Our land is from the rage of tigers freed,
Nor nourishes the lion's angry seed;

Nor poisonous Aconite is here produced,

Or grows unknown, or is (when known) refused.

The ancients were unacquainted with chemical poisons, and regarding the Aconite as possessing more deadly properties than any other known vegetable, they attributed the invention of it to Hecate, who produced it from the foam of Cerberus, when dragged by Hercules from the dismal dominions of Pluto; as we read in Ovid, translated by Sandys:

And now arrives unknown, Ægeus' seed,
Who, great in name, had two-sea'd isthmus freed;
Whose undeserved ruin Medea sought

By mortal Aconite, from Sythia brought;
This from the Echidnean dog dire essence draws.
There is a blind steep cave, with foggy jaws,
Through which the bold Tyrinthian hero strained,
Dragged Cerberus, with adamant enchained;
Who backward hung, and scowling, looked askew
On glorious day, with anger rabid grew;

Thrice howls, thrice barks, at once with his three heads,
And in the grass his foaming poison sheds.
This sprung; attracting from the fruitful soil

Dire nourishment, and power of deathful spoil.