PETALOIDE/ 21II 
leaves are net-veined with five to seven veins, cordate 
below, acuminate, shining, rather dark green, or 
yellow, the petioles very long. 
The plant is dicecious and the flowers are yellowish- 
green. The male flowers are single or in racemose 
clusters, which are branched below. The female 
flowers are few, in short recurved racemes which are 
axillary. 
The Black Bryony is often 8 to ro ft. in height, 
frequently overtopping the hedge. It flowers in May 
and June. 
The perianth is campanulate, and the flowers are 
quite small. The stigmas are bilobed. There are 
rudimentary flowers in the allied Dioscorea. The 
plant depends for fertilisation upon the cross-pol- 
lination by insect visitors. 
The fruit isa berry, red when ripe, poisonous, but 
attractive to birds and dispersed by them. 
Black Bryony is also called Adder’s Meat, Adder’s 
Poison, Beadbind, Bindweed, Broyany, Elpham, Isle 
of Wight Vine, Lady’s Seal, Mandrake, Murrian 
Berries, Oxberry, Poison Berry, Roberry, Rowberry, 
Rueberry, Rollberry, Serpent’s Meat, Snake Berry, 
Snake’s Food, Wild Vine. 
The name Snake’s Meat is due to the idea that 
it is always found where snakes are to be found. As 
the stem is flexuous this may be the reason—by 
Doctrine of Signatures! 
Farmers collected the berries formerly as a cure 
_ for barrenness in cattle, hence the name Oxberry. 
