194 ORD. XI. Cucurbitacew. MoMORDICA ELATBRIUM. 
and Lister.2 It is undoubtedly the most violent purgative in the 
Materia Medica, and ought therefore to be administered with great 
caution, and only where the milder cathartics have proved ineffec- 
tual. The dose is from half a grain to three grains: the most pru- 
dent and effectual way in which dropsies are now treated by this 
remedy, is by repeating it at short intervals in small doses. 
4 We may also notice, that Lister observes that the patients, by taking this medi- 
cine, became very hot, and found unusual stroug pulsations at the extremities of 
their fingers, De Hydrope, in App. Op. Mortoni, p. 25. 
BRYONIA ALBA. WHITE BRYONY. 
| 
SYNONYMA. Bryonia. Pharm Edinb. Bryonia aspera sive 
alba, baccis rubris. Bauh. Pin. p. 297. Bryonia alba vulgaris. 
Park. Theat. p.178. Bryonia alba. Gerard. Emac. p.869. Raii. 
Hist. p.659. Synop. p. 261. Hail. Hist. Stirp. Helo. 574. Hudson. 
Flor. Ang. p. 437. Relhan. Flor. Cantab. p.375. Lightfoot. Flor. 
Scot. Bryonia dioica. Withering. Bot. Arr. p. 1133. Ic. Flor. 
Dan. t. 813. Jacq. Flor. Aust.t.199. Miller. t. 70. 
Class Dioecia. Ord. Syngenesia. Lin. Gen. Plant. 1093. 
Ess. Gen. Ch. Masc. Cal. 5-dentatus. Cor. 5-partita. Filamenta 3. 
Fem, Cal. 5-dentatus. Cor. 5-partita. Stylus 3-fidus. 
Bacca subglobosa, polysperma. 
Sp. Ch. B. foliis palmatis utrinque calloso-scabris. . 
THE root is perennial, large, often a foot in circumference, 
tapering, branched, and of a whitish yellow colour: the stems are 
several yards in length, angular, slender, scandent, twisting them- 
selves about the bushes for support: the leaves are large, hairy, 
