BUTCHEU'S-BKOOM. 1 ;?9 



fruit is ripe. The leaves are alternate, ovate, sessile, sharp-poiiiteil, 

 smooth, very rigid, and pungent, bearing the solitary flower on 

 their upper surface. The flowers are dioecious, small and 

 white, each rising on a slender foot-stalk from the bosom of the 

 leaf. The males have an inferior perianth of six leaves, fila- 

 ments combined at the base, terminated by three spreading 

 anthers, seated on the edge of a tubular coloured nectai-y: the 

 females have a perianth and nectary, as in the male ; the ger- 

 men is superior oblong, supporting a short, thick style, termina- 

 ted by an obtuse stigma. The fruit is a large globose scarlet 

 berry, with three cells, each cell containing one or two seeds, 

 which are large, shining, nearly spherical, and enclosed in a 

 sweetish pulp. Plate 8, fig. 4, (a) the flower situated on the 

 disk of the leaf; (b) the flower isolated; (c) the seed. 



This plant grows in heathy places and woods, abundantly in 

 many parts of the south of England, rare in the north. The 

 only localities mentioned for it in Scotland are Bothwell woods, 

 and S. Kelder woods near Ayr. Dillenius found it on heaths 

 near Woolwich, and Ray tells us that it grew in hedges near 

 Black Notley in Essex. It is common in France, Italy, Spain, 

 and Carniola. The flowers appear in March and April. 



It was anciently called Bruscus, derived, it is said, from beus, 

 box, and kelen, holly, in Celtic, signifying Box-holly*. Its pro- 

 vincial appellations are Knee-Holly and Prickly Pettigree. 



Qualities and General Uses. — The tender shoots, just 

 after they appear in spring, are sometimes gathered by the poor, 

 and eaten like those of asparagus. " The branches were for- 

 merly used by butchers to sweep their blocks, and in Italy, and 

 some other countries, they use them for manufacturing brooms 

 and bee-hives. The branches, with the ripe fruit on them, were 

 formerly stuck up in sand, with the stalks of Peony and Iris, 

 displaying their capsules of ripe seeds; the three together 

 made a winter nosegay for rooms. In landscape gardening, 

 the plant is valuable as an evergreen, which will grow under 



* Virgil distinctly refers to it when he says, 



" Immd ego Sardois videar tibi amarior herbis, 



Horridior rusco — ." Eel. vii. 1. 41. 



and, 



necnon etiam aspera nisei 



Vimina per sylvani." Gear. ii. 1. 413. 



