52 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



unwholesome appearance in quite justified by experience, as 

 they are raw and acrid and entirely undesirable as an item 

 in one's dietary. 



RED-BERRIED BRYONY (Bryonia Dioica) 



As both species of bryony bear red berries, to call one 

 of them by way of distinction the red-berried bryony does 

 not strike one as being a particularly happy idea, and so 

 we occasionally, though much more seldom, find it called 

 white bryony in strong contradiction to black bryony. In 

 each plant the roots are very large, and in the case of one 

 of them white and in the other black. The white bryony 

 throws up a large number of slender, herbaceous stems, 

 slightly rough to the touch, and climbing vigorously. 

 The leaves are large, and five-lobed, rough in texture, and 

 each having, at the base of the stem on which it is 

 borne, a long spiral tendril. The flowers are dioecious, 

 the males being on one plant, and the females on another, 

 small and of whitish-green colour. The fruit is a globose, 

 many-seeded berry about as large as a pea, green at first, 

 but ultimately passing through yellow to crimson. The 

 plant is called the Bryony from the Greek bryo, to grow 

 up, in allusion to the vigorous growth of the annual shoots. 

 By some old writers it is called White Vine. It is a 

 charming plant to trail over any fencing in an odd corner 

 of one's garden. We have had it, and enjoyed it in our 

 own garden for years, as it comes up each Spring as a 

 matter of course, needs no attention, and only asks to be 

 let alone. 



The odour of the berries on crushing them is somewhat 



