98 BRYONY. 



climbing by means of numerous simple tendrils. The leaves 

 are large, alternate, palmated, with five acute, irregularly toothed 

 lobes, rough on both sides with minute callous points, and 

 supported on long stalks, from whose base proceeds a long, 

 simple, spiral tendril. The flowers are dioecious, disposed in 

 small clusters, which spring from the axils of the leaves : the 

 male flowers have a short, campanulate, five-toothed calyx, a 

 monopetalous corolla, with five ovate, spreading segments, of 

 a yellowish-white colour, elegantly streaked with green veins, 

 and three short filaments, two of which are furnished with dou- 

 ble anthers ; the female flowers have a calyx and corolla, 

 resembling those of the male, but smaller. The germen is in- 

 ferior, one-celled, surmounted by a short, erect, three-cleft style, 

 terminated by large, spreading stigmas. The fruit is a globose 

 berry, one-celled, many-seeded, about the size of a pea, at first 

 green, afterwards changing to a bright red colour. The seeds 

 are about five or six in number, small, ovoid, compressed, and 

 enveloped in a mucilaginous pulp. Plate 8, Fig. 3. (a) corolla 

 spread open to show the anthers ; (6) germen, with its style and 

 stigmas ; (c) ripe fruit. 



This plant is a native of most parts of Europe ; frequent in 

 England, rare in Scotland. It occurs in hedges and thickets, 

 flowering from May to August*, and ripening its fruit in 

 autumn. 



The genus is named Bryonia, from (3pa, to increase or 

 grorv rapidly, in allusion to the quick growth of the plant. 

 This species is called, provincially, Wild Vine, and Tetter 



Berry. 



The red-berried Bryony was reckoned by Linnaeus a variety 

 of the Bryonia alba or White Bryony ; but the latter has monoe- 

 cious flowers and black fruit, and is more frequent in the north- 

 ern parts of the continent. 



According to Miller, the roots of Bryony were formerly car- 

 ried about the country and exhibited as mandrakes by certain 

 impudent impostors f, who thus reaped a golden harvest from 



* The annual herbaceous stems of the male plant generally wither and 

 die before the end of July. 



+ " Circulatores et Agyrtae nonnulli ex hujus radice mira quaedam monstra 

 effingunt, qus cum aliquot dies siccae arenae mandaverint pro mandragoris 

 postea distrahunt et vendunt." Geqfroy, Mat. Med. in. 224. 



