Localities. — On bushy heaths, and in woods, especially on a gravelly soil ; 
not common. — Oxfordshire; Between C'aveisham and Maple Durham. — 
Berks ; Streatly Wood : H. Woollcosibe, Esq. Bradfield: Hev. Mr. Witts. — 
Cambridgeshire; Anglesey Abbey. — Cornwall; Lemorna Cove; and St. 
Martin’s Isle, Scilly. — Devon; Harford Wood, three miles from Sidmouth. 
Clift’s at Marychureh, and Gockington Wood. — Durham ; Near Cocketton ; and 
in Cliff Wood. — Hants ; Shore near Portsmouth. Not uncommon about South- 
ampton. New Forest, near Stony Cross. Stoke, near Gosport (variety laxus). 
— Kent; Tunbridge Wells. N. and M. Kent. — Norfolk ; Hethel Woods near 
Norwich. — Suffolk ; Heath near Lowestoft. — Surrey ; Claygate Common ; 
Coulsdon ; in Norwood ; and on Cockshot Hill, S. E. of the Mill. — Sussex ; 
About Hastings. Local in W. Sussex. — Yorksh . Near Ripon. — SCOTLA N D. 
Ayrshire; Skeldon Woods, near Ayr. — Lanarkshire ; In the woods at Botli- 
well, near Glasgow. — It has not been found in IRELAND. 
Perennial. — Flowers in March and April. 
Root thick, fleshy, brown on the outside, white within ; much 
divided at the crown, and furnished with long fibres which strike 
deep into the ground. Stems upright, from 1 lo 3 feet high, tough, 
woody, rigid, much branched, round, green, striated ; not flowering 
till the second year, after which they die down to the root. Leaves 
a continuation of the branches, equally firm and durable, with 
scarcely any petioles ( leafstalks ) , alternate, spreading every way, 
obliquely twisted, egg-shaped, not an inch long, many-ribbed, each 
tipped with a sharp point. Flowers small, solitary, near the middle 
of the upper side of each leaf, apparently sessile, but their stalk is 
imbedded beneath the outer coat, and runs down to the base of the 
leaf, from whence it may with ease be dissected. Calyx and 
Corolla of a yellowish-green. Nectary (fig. 4.) purplish. Berry 
(fig. 5.) nearly as large as a wild Cherry, scarlet, juicy, and sweet- 
ish. Seeds (fig. 7.) originally 6, but only 1 or 2 come to perfection ; 
these are hard, white, and semi-transparent. Instead of a leaflet, 
of considerable size, which accompanies the flow'er in some species, 
there is in this a small spine, or bristle, winged at the base, besides 
2 or 3 membranous bracteas, on the elongated fruit-stalk. Ruscus 
laxus of Tr. of Linn. Soc. v. iii. p. 334, is a variety of this with 
more extended and wavy branches, and the leaves rather elliptical 
than egg-shaped, and tapering at the base. Sm. Engl. FI. 
Buscus aculeatus is an evergreen, somewhat shrubby, plant, smooth in every 
part. It is a native of Europe, but not of the more northern pails. It is also 
found in Asia and Africa. The green shoots are cut, bound into bundles, and 
sold to the butchers for sweeping their blocks. Huxters place the boughs round 
their bacon and cheese to defend them from mice, the prickly leaves being im- 
penetrable. It is also used, in London, by the manufacturers of cigars, Ac., for 
sprinkling the saline liquor over the tobacco leaves. The tender young shoots, 
in Spring, are sometimes gathered and eaten by the poor like those of Asparagus ; 
and the branches, with the ripe fruit on them, were formerly stuck up in sand, 
with the stalks of the common pseony fPaonia corallina, t. 217,^1 and the wild 
Iris ( I'ris feetidissima J , full of their ripe seeds, which, altogether, matle a show 
in rooms during Winter. The root has a bitterish taste, and was formerly much 
used in medicine as an aperient and diuretic, particularly in cases of dropsy. — 
See Loud. Arb. et Frutic, Brit. 
The Natural Order Smila'oe.e is composed of monocotyledonous herbaceous 
plants or under-shrubs. Their leaves have parallel veins. 1 \\eu flowers are 
either perfect or dioecious, inferior, pataloid, 6-parted, and regular ; with 3, 6, 
or 8 stamens, inserted into the segments near their base, seldom hypogynous. 
Their ovary is free, 3- or 4-celled ; and the cells I-, 2-, or many-seeded. The 
style is single, with a simple, or 3-lobed stigma. The fruit is a roundish 
berry ; and the seeds have a membranous testa, and horny albumen. — The 
British genera are, Buscus, t. 474 ,—Convallaria, t. 78.— and Paris, t. 6. 
