Tamus. | LXAXXIV., DIOSCORIDE. 455 
I. TAMUS. BLACK BRYONY. 
A single or perhaps two species, distinguished as a genus in the 
Order by the fruit, which is a berry, not a dry capsule. 
1. T. communis, Linn. (fig. 1028). Black Bryony.—An elegant 
climber, twining to a considerable length over hedges and bushes, 
easily known by its bright, shining, heart-shaped leaves, with a taper- 
ing point, and sometimes almost 3-lobed but otherwise entire. Flowers 
small, of a yellowish-green; the males in slender racemes, often branched 
and longer than the leaves ; the females in much shorter and closer 
racemes. Berries scarlet, often very numerous. 
In hedges, and open woods, and bushy places, in west-central and 
southern Europe, extending eastward to the Caucasus, and northward 
to Belgium. Dispersed over nearly the whole of England, and common 
in some counties, but not found in Scotland, and in Ireland confined 
to the banks of Lough Gill, in Sligo. Fl. spring and early summer. 
LXXXV. LILIACEA. THE LILY FAMILY. 
Perennial herbs, with a creeping, bulbous, or clustered root- 
stock, and either radical leaves and peduncles, or annual bien- 
nial, or, in a few exotic species, perennial, leafy flowering-stems. 
Flowers hermaphrodite or rarely unisexual. Perianth inferior, 
petal-like, with 6 divisions. Stamens 6. Ovary free, 3-celled, 
with several ovules or rarely only one ovule in each cell. Styles 
single, with an entire or 3-parted stigma. Fruit a capsule or 
berry. In a very few cases the parts of the flower are reduced 
to 4, or increased to 8. 
A large Order, widely distributed over every part of the globe, and 
supplying several of the most gorgeous ornaments of our flower- 
gardens. It is easily distinguished from Alismacew by the carpels 
united into a single ovary and fruit, from Amaryllidec by the free or 
superior ovary, from Juncee by the petal-like, coloured perianth. It 
is usually divided into two or more Orders, variously circumscribed 
according as the character is taken from the foliage, the fruit, the 
seed, or the stock, none of which taken alone give a very natural 
demarcation. A more natural arrangement appears to be to preserve 
the whole as one large family, divided into suborders, of which five, 
enumerated below, are represented in Britain. 
Stem leafy. 
Stem branching. Fruit a berry. 
Leaves short, subulate, and clustered. Flowers axillary . 5, ASPARAGUS. 
Leaves ovate, stiff, and pale Flowers on the middle of 
the leaves . : : 6. RUSCUS. 
Stems simple. 
Fruit a berry. 
Leaves net-veined, in a single whorl of 4 or rarely 5 eyo ABARIS. 
Leaves parallel- veined, alternate or radical. 
Flowers axillary : . 7 : . . 2. POLYGONATUM. 
Flowers in a terminal raceme, 
Perianth bell-shaped. Leaves radical . CONVALLARTIA. 
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