CUCURBITACE/E. 
137 
of iood among the Egyptians. It is also rubbed over the 
surface of the body, alter the bath, to act as a cosmetic. 
V. Bryonia. 
Flowers monoccions or dioecious. Petals scarce- 
ly united at the base. Calyx 5-toothed. Sta- 
mens 3-adelphous : anthers flexuose. $ Style 
3-fid. Fruit ovate or globose, smooth, few-seed- 
ed : seeds ovate, scarcely compressed, more or 
less margined. 
Name from /3|uw to grow rapidly. 
1. Bryonia racemosa. Jamaica Bryony. 
Lower leaves palmato-5-lobed, the leaves high- 
er on the stem 3-lobed and undivided, divisions 
oblong mucronate denticulated, flowers racemose, 
peduncles subsccund, fruit ovoid. 
Bryonia racemosa foliis ficulneis. Plum. Amer. 83. 
t. 07. — B. foliis hirtis, trilobis, vel quinquelobis, racemis 
minoribus alaribus. Browne, 3#5 — B, racemosa, Swartz, 
FI. Ind, Qcc. 1148. 
II All. Common, in thickets and by the road-sides in 
the mountains. 
F L. December — March. 
Root perennial. Stem at the base woody ; afterwards 
herbaceous, very long, scarcely thicker than a swans 
quill, anguloso-sulcated, hispid. Leaves palmate : the 
early leaves 5-lobed, the later ones 3, or sub-5-lobcd ; 
middle lobe the largest ; lateral ones less distinct; all of 
them oblong, mucronato-apiculated, serrato-dentatc or 
denticulated ; nerves 3, with the lateral nerves bifurcated ; 
veins reticulated ; surface hispid ; petiole subtcrcte, 
channelled, hispid. Tendrils axillary, subsimple. Ra- 
cemes axillary, arising between the petiole and the tendril, 
shorter than the petiole, about 4-tlowered, subsccund. 
Peduncle thick, anguloso-sulcated, hispid : pedicels short, 
terete, 1- flowered. Flowers dioecious. £ Pedicels not 
more than 2 lines in length, minutely hispidulous. Calyx 
campanulate, contracted at the throat. 5-toothed ; teeth 
Vol. 2. i * 
(it t 
I / 
1 \ 1 Ct C-C ln.p j 
V 
