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158 THE GOURD FAMILY. — [Bryonia. 
A considerable Order, chiefly tropical, and more especially African, with 
but very few species extending into Europe or northern Asia. It is very 
easily recognized, as well by its foliage and tendrils as by the structure of 
the flowers. The only Order at all allied to it is that of the Passifloracee 
or Passion-flowers, almost all of them American, and chiefly tropical, but 
of which some species are well known among our greenhouse or stove plants. 
To the Cucurbitacee belong the Cucumbers, Melons, Watermelons, Gourds, 
Pumpkins, Vegetable Marrows, etc., of our gardens, most of them of very 
ancient cultivation, but unknown in a wild state. 
I. BRYONIA. BRYONY. 
Calyx with five small teeth. Corolla 5-lobed. Stamens combined into 
3, of which 2 are double and 1 single. Style 3-lobed, with capitate or 
2-lobed stigmas. Fruit a globular berry. 
1. B. dioica, Linn. (fig. 357). Common Bryony.—Rootstock perennial, 
thick and tuberous, sometimes branched; the annual stems climbing to a 
great length, and, as well as the whole plant, rough with minute hairs, 
containing an acrid juice, and emitting a sickening smell in drying. Ten- 
drils simple or branched, and spirally twisted. Leaves more or less deeply 
divided into 5 or 7 broad, angular, and coarsely toothed lobes, of which the 
middle one is the longest. Flowers dicecious, the males several together 
in stalked racemes, of a pale yellow; the corolla broadly campanulate, 
about half an inch diameter ; the females much smaller, generally 2 together, 
nearly rotate, with a globular ovary. Berries red or orange, about 4 lines 
in diameter, containing several flat, nearly orbicular seeds. 
Common in hedges and thickets, in central and southern Europe to.the 
Caucasus. Occurs in most English counties, and common in some, but 
rare in the north and in Wales, and does not extend into Scotland or Ire- 
land. Fl. summer. It must not be confounded with the so-called black 
Bryony, Tamus communis, a very different plant, with entire, shining 
leaves. 
[The Purslane family, inserted here in the first edition, is now placed 
above, p. 76, next to Caryophyllacee, and the Paronychia family will be 
found below, next to Chenopodiacee. | 
XXX. CRASSULACEA. THE CRASSULA FAMILY, 
Herbs or shrubs, with succulent leaves, all or only the upper 
ones usually alternate, rarely all opposite, no stipules, and 
flowers in terminal racemes or cymes. Sepals 3 or more, 
usually 5, sometimes 15 to 20, cohering at the base. Petals as 
many, sometimes united in a single corolla, Stamens as many 
or twice as many, inserted with the petals at the base of the 
calyx. Ovary superior ; the carpels as many as the petals, and 
free, usually with a small, flat scale at their base, and forming 
as many distinct capsules, each containing several seeds attached — 
to the inner angle. Embryo straight, with a thin, fleshy 
albumen. 
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