RED-BERRIED BRYONY.— 5ryo«e« dioica. 



Class MoN(EciA. Order Pentandria. Nat, Orel. Cucurbitace^. 

 Gourd Tribe. 



In the latter part of April, when young leaves 

 and shoots seem daily to increase in number 

 and luxuriance, many of them are almost as 

 beautiful as flowers. But no gradually ex- 

 panding shoot is at this season more elegant 

 than that of the White Bryony. In later 

 months, the foliage is thickly beset, both on 

 the upper and under surfaces, with stiff hairs 

 almost like prickles ; but in the spring these 

 form merely a beautiful down on the tender 

 green of the stem and leaves, and this covering 

 is so full, and the hairs so clear and glittering, 

 that the young plant looks as if covered with 

 the bright hoar frost of winter. By the middle 

 of May, however, the graceful shoot has be- 

 come a long trailing stem, and, reaching a 

 distance of many feet among the hedges and 

 thickets, its deep green, vine-like leaves, curling 

 tendrils, and greenish-white flowers, render 

 it one of our most beautiful wild climbers. 

 Its botanical name is taken from a Greek word 



