BLACK BRYONY 51 



Climatis, Camomill, etc. The cause is, for that all Plants 

 (naturally) moue vpwards : But if the Sap put vp too 

 fast, it maketh a slender Staike, which will not support 

 the weight ; And therefore these latter Sort are all Swift 

 and Hasty Commers." So declareth Bacon in his Sylva 

 Sylvarum, though how the Chamomile, a low-growing 

 plant, yet sturdy withal, as befits a plant that has to 

 fight for its life on open common land, ever got amongst 

 the climbing plants it is impossible to divine. The sage 

 Bacon was at this point a little less erudite than usual. 



The leaves of the black byrony are large, of a very 

 pronounced heart-shape, very polished and shining in 

 surface, dark green in colour, very prominently veined, 

 very numerous on the stems. In the Autumn, when the 

 foliage is fading, it changes from sombre green to a great 

 variety of yellow and brown tints, and becomes a very 

 noticeable feature in the hedgerows, its long festoons being 

 much in evidence. Beautiful in its dark glossy green 

 garb in the Summer, it is still more attractive in its brilliant 

 Autumn attire, and when we add to this the long line of 

 fruit-clusters, themselves greatly varied in colour, the total 

 result is very charming. The large tuberous roots are 

 possessed of an acrid pulp that suggested their use to our 

 forefathers as a stimulating plaster, and the young stems 

 may be eaten like asparagus. The flowers are small and 

 greenish in colour, the stamen-bearing flowers being on one 

 plant and the pistillate flowers on another, hence it is not 

 every black bryony we see that is berry-bearing. These 

 berries, though attractive to the eye from their varied colours, 

 a state of things arising from their more or less approach 

 to maturity, do not strike one as very tempting. This 



