LY'CIUM A'FRUM. 
AFRICAN BOX-THORN. 
Class. 
PENTANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
SOLANACEjE. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Habit. 
Introduced 
C. G. Hope 
10 feet. 
June, July. 
Shrub. 
in 1712. 
No. 984. 
Lycium is a name supposed to be founded on 
that of Lycia, in Asia minor ; it was used by 
Dioscorides for a thorny plant ; hence it has been 
given to this genus. The Lycium of the Greeks, 
Dr. Royle has pretty clearly ascertained to be the 
species of Barbeny to which he has given the name 
of Berberis afmm. ^ 
Lycium afmm is not a well known plant, from 
the circumstance of its not being quite hardy. 
David Don, who figured it a few years ago, in 
Sweet's Flower Garden, states, however, that the 
plant he described had grown against a wall in the 
Chelsea Apothecaries’ Garden, for many years, 
without protection, other than what its situation 
afforded ; and is there, says Don, annually adorned 
TAuth a profusion of its rich puiqile blossoms. 
This plant may be kept in a pot as a small 
sbmbby window ornament ; and in winter, when 
it lacks beauty, it may be laid by in a cellar, and 
be kept without water till spring. It is frequently 
imported from the south of Europe by the Italian 
warehousemen, and the plants flower freely in the 
same season. 
