BRYONIA ALBA. ORD. XI. Cucurbitacee. 195 
lobed, or palmated, lobes pointed; they stand alternately upon 
strong hairy footstalks: the flowers are of a yellowish green colour, 
produced in clusters at the footstalks of the leaves, and are male and 
female on different plants: the calyx of the male flowers is bell- 
shaped, and deeply divided into five narrow pointed segments: the 
corolla is also divided into five segments, which are ovate, and 
spreading: the filaments are three, short, thick, and furnished with 
irregular antherze, of which two are said to be on each two of-the 
filaments, and one on the third: the calyx and corolla of the female 
flower resemble those of the male, but are smaller: the germen is 
round, and placed below the flower: the style is strong, erect, 
of the length of the corolla, and divided at the top into three 
parts, which are bent downwards, and each furnished with a large 
triangular stigma: the fruit is a smooth red berry containing five 
or six seeds. It is common in woods and hedges, and flowers in 
May and June. 
Linnzus places this plant in the class Monoecia, though he tells 
us that Jacquin describes it as dioecious, and we have alvcys seen 
it so in this country; nor have we ever found it to bear black ber- 
ries. Some doubt may also arise whether it be properly referred 
to the order Syngenesia, as the anther upon the different filaments 
do not unite; a circumstance which we have endeavoured to repre- 
sent in a separate display of the flower. 
“ Fresh Bryony root, taken up in the beginning of spring, qseene 
with a thin milky juice: if the upper part of the root be bared of 
earth, and the top cut over transversely, the juice continues to rise 
gradually to the surface, in notable quantity, for two or three days 
successively, and may be collected by forming a cavity in the mid- 
dle to receive it. Both the root in substance, and the j juice, have 
a disagreeable smell, and a nauseous bitter biting taste: applied for 
some time to the skin, they inflame or even vesicate the part. On 
drying the one, or inspissating the other, they lose most of their — 
acrimony, and nearly the whole of their ill scent. In summer the 
root proves much less juicy and weaker both in smell and taste.” 
* Lewis, M. M. p. 165. 
