GROSSULAHIACEiE. 37 



Dioscorides, and afterwards by Gerarde. In those days men's constitutions must have 

 been tougher than in the present time, for we think but few coukl stand such doses as 

 were then common. Galen, moreover, writes that this root is profitable for tanners 

 to thicken their leather hides with. And, according to Gerarde, " the root of Bryony 

 stamped with some sulphur or brimstone, and made up into a masse or lump, wrapped 

 in a linnen clout, taketh away the morpheu, freckles, and spots of the face, if it be 

 rubbed with the same, being dipped first in vineger." "Withering says, a decoction 

 made by boiling one pound of the fresh root in water is " the best purge for horned 

 catile." The acrid and cathartic properties of the I'oot are shared in some measure by 

 all parts of the plant ; the berries are emetic and even poisonous : the young shoots 

 in the spring, however, are inert, and are sometimes boiled and eaten as greens without 

 mischief. The active principle of the plant is distinguished by chemists as an alkaloid 

 called hryonin. The French call the root Navet du JJlahle. 



OUDEU XXX.— GROSSULARIACEiE. 



Shrubs, sometimes spiny. Leaves alternate, often fascicled, ex- 

 stipulate, petiolate, with the petiole usually dilated and commonly 

 fringed at the base, the lamina palmately veined and lobed, fre- 

 quently sprinkled with resinous dots. Plowers racemose or sub- 

 solitary, produced from the same bud as the leaves, and terminating 

 the very short axillary branches, or sometimes from leafless buds, 

 generally perfect, rarely dioecious, regular, greenish, reddish-olive, 

 purplish-red, or yellow. Calyx coloured, with the tube bell- 

 shaped or sub-cylindrical, united with the ovary ; limb marces- 

 cent, 5- rarely 4-cleft, imbricated in aestivation. Petals as many as 

 the lobes of the calyx, inserted in the throat of the tube, deciduous, 

 small. Stamens as many as the petals, and inserted with them ; 

 anthers 2-celled, introrse. Ovary inferior, adnate with the calyx- 

 tube, 1-celled ; placentae 2, parietal ; ovules generally numerous, 

 rarely few ; styles 2, rarely 3 or 4, sometimes distinct, sometimes 

 more or less united ; stigma extremely short, obtuse. Pruit a 

 pulpy or watery berry crowned by the withered remains of the 

 calyx, 1-celled. Seeds numerous, rarely few, anatropous, with the 

 raphe at length free from the gelatinous seed-coat, the inner in- 

 tegument crustaceous ; albumen fleshy ; embryo minute, eccentric. 



GENUS J.— R I B E S. Linn. 



Calyx-tube adhering to the ovary ; limb cleft or divided into 

 5 (rarely 4) persistent but withering coloured segments. Petals 5 



