RUSCUS ACULEATUS, ORD. VIII. Sarmentacee. 167 
different plants, solitary, appearing on the upper disc of the leaves. 
Calyx of the male flower composed of six small oval spreading 
leaves, of a yellowish green. Corolla none. Nectarium egg-shaped, 
inflated, upright, purple, open at the rim, of the length of the 
calyx. Filaments none. Anthere three, expanding, uniting at 
the base, placed at the mouth of the nectarium. In the female 
flower the germen is oblong, enclosed in the nectarium, supporting 
a cylindrical style, supplied with a blunt stigma. Fruit a threé- 
celled red berry, containing two globular seeds. 
It usually grows in woods and thickets, flowering in March and 
April. 
The root, which is somewhat thick, knotty, and furnished with — 
long fibres, externally brown, internally white, and of a bitterish — 
taste, has been recommended. as an aperient and diuretic in drop- 
sies, urinary obstructions, and mephritic cases. Hence it has been 
termed one of the five greater aperient roots. 
It is manifestly the pxpcwm aypa Of Dioscorides,” who speaks highly 
of its deobstruent and diuretic powers; and Riverius relates a case 
of dropsy successfully treated by a decoction of the roots of Ruscus; 
but at present this plant is very rarely, if ever, employed m 
medicine. 
» Lib, 4, c, 146, 
etatainmemminiieesin.”... Soeeenanemmmmiammaanell 
CISSAMPELOS PAREIRA. PAREIRA BRAVA CISSAMPELOS. — 
SYNONY.MA. Pareira brava. Pharm. Lond. Clematis baccifera 
glabra et villosa, rotundo & umbelicato. folio, Pluwmier, Plantes 
deV Amer. 78..t. 93. Sloane’s Jamaica, vol. i. p: 200. Cat. 85. 
Caapeba folio orbiculari umbelicato & tomentoso. Plum. Gen. 33. 
Cissampelos scandens, foliis peltatis orbiculato-cordatis villosig; 
floribus masculinis racemosis, femininis spicatis, spicis foliolatis. 
Browne’s Jamaica, p. 357 . 
