BLACKTHORN 53 



nauseous and the taste insipid. The plant abounds with 

 an acrid juice. The root' of the bryony has a disagreeable 

 odour, and a nauseous taste, and, though it has been a good 

 deal used in medicine, has very poisonous qualities. It has 

 been employed in asthma, hysteria, epilepsy, lumbago, and 

 other ills of suffering humanity, but several cases are on 

 record in the text-books and medical transactions where 

 death has supervened from improper administration. 

 Tincture of bryonia still holds a place in modern medicine, 

 being used advantageously in pleurisy and inflammation 

 of the lungs. The earlier physicians made great use of 

 the plant. " The iuyce of the root," says one venerable 

 authority, " being pressed out in the Spring and drunke with 

 mead or honied water draweth forth choler." '-'Dropsie, 

 falling sicknesse, swimming of the braine, black and blew 

 spots which come of stripes, leprie " were all attacked by 

 the administration of bryony. 



BLACKTHORN (Prunus Communis) 



The Blackthorn, Prunus communis, depicted in its 

 fruiting stage in Plate IX. is in the early Springtime a very 

 conspicuous feature in the hedgerows and copses, as it is 

 then thickly covered over with a wealth of pure snow-white 

 blossoms. The flowering period varies naturally in varying 

 localities and conditions of growth, but may be taken as 

 about the beginning of March to the middle of April. 



' The roote is very greate, long and thicke, growing deepe in tlie earth, 

 of a whitish yellow colour, extreame bitter, and altogether of an unpleasant 

 taste. The Queenes chiefe Surgion Mr. William Godorons, a very curious 

 and learned gentleman shewed me a root hereof, that waied halfe an hundred 

 weight, and of the bignesse of a childe of a yeere old. — -Gerard. 



