170 ENGLISI BOTANY. 
trigonous; style single, 3-cleft at the apex, the segments recurved; 
stigmas bilobed. Fruit a berry, 1-celled by the three dissepiments 
partially disappearing. Seeds 2 or 3 in each of the 3 imperfect cells, 
or sometimes by abortion only 1 in each, subglobose. 
A twining herb with pear-shaped tubers, with the large end down- 
wards, and twining stems bearing alternate stalked ovate-cordate acu- 
minate leaves with reticulate venation. Flowers minute, in axillary 
racemes or spikes, much shorter in the female plant than in the male. 
Berries red, juicy, with a thin skin. 
The name of this genus is a modification of the Latin name for the wild vine as 
given by Pliny, tamnus. 
SPECIES I—TAMUS COMMUNIS. Linn. 
Prats MDVIII. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. X. Tab. CCCCXXXTX, 
The only known species. 
In hedges, bushy places, and open woods. Common in the south 
of England, more rare in the north, and not extending to Scotland or 
Ireland. 
England. Perennial. Summer. 
Rootstock a roundish-ovoid tuber, attenuated towards the top, 
flowering when about the size of a peach, with a fuscous-brown skin 
clothed with radical fibres and a white coat, deeply buried in the earth 
—at least this is my experience of it; but Dr. Bromfield, who is most 
accurate in his descriptions, says it is “very large and thick, consisting 
of an aggregate of irregular fusiform or digitate tubers” (Fl. Vect. 
p- 506). Stems wiry, herbaceous, angular, twining, often attaining a 
length of 5 or 6 feet or more. Leaves alternate, stalked, ovate or 
roundish-oyate, acuminate, deeply cordate, acute and usually produced 
into a long slender point, 5- or 7-ribbed, the ribs connected by 
numerous anastomosing veins. Stipules minute, reflexed. Flowers 
dicecious ; the male flowers } inch across, in small clusters arranged 
in axillary and terminal stalked erect long slender many-flowered 
racemes ; the female flowers in axillary subsessile recurved short few- 
flowered racemes. Bracts minute, subulate, scarious. Perianth of 
the male flowers greenish, deeply divided into six narrowly oblong 
slightly recurved segments. Female flowers with the ovary adnate 
to the tube of the perianth; the limb resembling the male flower, 
but smaller. In the male flowers there is a rudimentary pistil, and 
in the female six abortive stamens. Berries about the size of sloes, 
ovoid, tapering at each end, pale scarlet red, very juicy, with a smooth 
thin skin. Seeds 1 to 3 in each cell, subglobular, rugese, pale yellow, 
