LORDS AND LADIES 235 



Black Bryony is a clay-loving plant, and addicted to a clay soil, 

 or partly a sand-loving plant, and found on sand soil. 



Tamus, Gesner, Pliny says, was used as asparagus, as a diuretic, 

 and for spleen. In Tuscany it is called tamaro, and is now eaten as 

 asparagus there. The second Latin name refers to its wide distribution. 



The plant is called Adder's Meat, Adder's Poison, Bead Bind, 

 Bindweed, Broyant, Bryony, Black Bryony, Elphamy, Isle of Wight 

 Vine, Lady's Seal, Mandrake, Murrain Berries, Oxberry, Poison 

 Berry, Roberry, Rowberry, Rueberry, Rollberry, Serpent's Meat, 

 Snakeberry, Snake's Food, Wild Vine. 



It is called Serpent's Meat where an idea prevails that snakes are 

 always lurking about the places where it grows, perhaps by Doctrine 

 of Signatures, on account of its serpentine habit. In Montgomery it is 

 used to rub on the joints of animals, especially of pigs, that are lame 

 from a disease which is there called Broyant. It is called Oxberry 

 because the berries are collected by the farmers as a cure for barrenness 

 in cattle. It was named Our Lady's Seal because of the supposed 

 efficacy of its roots, when spread in a plaster, and applied to heal up 

 a scar or bruises. It is a climbing plant, which hibernates by tubers 

 formed by a lateral outgrowth of the first two internodes of the stem. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



299. Tamus communis, L. Stem twining, wiry, leaves shiny, 

 cordate, acute, plant dioecious, flowers in axillary racemes, yellowish- 

 green, berry red. 



Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum, L.) 



This common hedgerow plant is distributed throughout the N. 

 Temperate Zone in Europe from Gothland southward, N. Africa, 

 and is not represented in early deposits. Cuckoo Pint, as it is also 

 widely styled, is found generally throughout England and Wales; in 

 the E. Lowlands only in Roxburgh, Berwick, Edinburgh; in the 

 Highlands only in Stirling, Mid and East Perth, Dumbarton, Clyde 

 Islands, S. Ebudes; or from Caithness southward, and up to 1000 ft. 

 in N. England. It is doubtfully wild in Scotland, and grows in Ireland 

 and the Channel Islands. 



Lords and Ladies is a peculiar plant, having likes and dislikes, just 

 as Dog's Mercury, Red Campion, Greater Stitchwort, and some other 

 common species, for certain areas. It is a shade plant, fond of growing 

 in woods and under hedges, and is not a lover of sand, but rather of 

 mild humus. 



