Spring is supposed to begin in February when, according to the old calendar, the new year sets in, but th only flowers then in bloom are the camellia japonsca and some kinds of daphne.
Ben is offered a bribe to drop Daphne's case.
There is more than one meaning of Daphne discussed in the 1911 Encyclopedia.
One torrent, the Onopniktes ("donkey-drowner"), flowed through the new city, and many other streams came down a few miles west into the beautiful suburb of Daphne.
The beauty and the lax morals of Daphne were celebrated all over the western world; and indeed Antioch as a whole shared in both these titles to fame.