TRILLIACE^— HERB PARIS TRIBE 237 



are very conspicuous in their scarlet hue, and very ornamental. The young 

 shoots of this plant are said by Profep?or Burnett to have a mild and agree- 

 able flavour, and to form a good substitute for asparagus. This plant, how- 

 ever, possesses a poisonous principle, both in its rootstock and berries ; and 

 as its fully-developed leaves may also be unwholesome, the common burdock 

 might prove a safer substitute. But Professor Burnett is a high authority 

 on the properties of plants ; and he adds that the Moors boil the shoots, and 

 eat them with vinegar and salt. 



The Bryony has a very old reputation for the remedial virtues of its 

 large root, which is full of a starchy substance, mingled with a bitter acrid 

 matter, Avhich is noxious till dissipated by heat and repeated washings, when 

 it becomes, like that of the arum, wholesome and nutritive. A number of 

 blackish tumours, possessing a larger amount of the acrid principle, grow on 

 the rootstock ; and these should previously be removed, if the rootstock be 

 prepared for food. It is these tubers especially, however, which were valued 

 by the old physicians for stimulating plasters, being crushed in a mortar for 

 this purpose. Mrs. Mooclie, who remarks of the Canadian Indians, that 

 they are very skilful in the treatment of wounds and the cure of diseases by 

 means of various plants, says that they make a common salve of the roots of 

 this Bryony. The French call the plant Tamier ; the Glermans, Schwarz- 

 wurzel ; the Dutch, Vrouwenzegel ; the Italians, Briona vera. 



Order LXXXVII. TRILLIACE2E— HERB PARIS TRIBE. 



Perianth 6 — 10 parted, in 2 rows, outer row or calyx green, inner green 

 or coloured; stamens 6—10 ; anthers very long, their cells apart, connective 

 produced ; ovary superior, with 3 — 5 cells, and as many styles ; fruit, a 3—5 

 celled berry ; seeds numerous. This is a small order of herbaceous plants, 

 often included in the Lily Tribe, with tuberous roots and whorled leaves, 

 which have netted veins, Ijut the leaves are not jointed to the stem. The 

 properties of the species are acrid and narcotic. 



PAris. — Perianth of 8 — 10 narrow spreading divisions, inner ones slightly 

 coloured; stamens 8 — 12. Name from the Latin, par, paris, equal, on 

 account of the regularity of leaves and flowers. 



Herb Paris (Paris). 



Herb Paris (P. quadrifdlia). — Leaves egg-shaped, pointed, four or five in a 

 whorl ; flower single, terminal ; rootstock stout, creeping. This very singular 

 plant has a stem about a foot high, which, in May, has near its summit four 

 large broad leaves with distinct veins. From the centre of these arises a 

 single flower on a footstalk, about two inches long. The four outer sepals 

 are green, the four inner and more slender petals are yellow ; the stamens 

 are usually eight in rmmber, and the 4-celled ovary is crowned by four 

 styles. This is the ordinary state of the plant. But the singular circum- 

 stance that it consists of four or twice that number of pai-ts, is not invariable, 

 for diff'erent specimens have been found exhibiting three or five leaves, or, 

 in rare instances, eight, as well as having but three outer sepals. The most 



