a 02 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
the midrib of the leaf is only a continuation of the stem, for the flowers and berries both spring from the 
midrib, and hang from the centre of the leaf. The leaves are hard and prickly, and the plant takes its name of 
Butcher’s Broom from the use still made of it by butchers, in many parts of England, to drive the flies from their 
stalls, by the sharpness and hardness of the leaves. The plant is common in almost every part of England, 
particularly in gravelly soils, and the flowers appear in March and April. 
GENUS X. 
THE HERB PARIS. (Paris, Lin.) 
Lin. Syst. OCTANDIIIA TETRANDRIA. 
Generic Character. —Sepals four. Petals four. Stamens eight. Anthers attached to the middle of the filaments. Stigmas four. Berry 
four-celled ; cells eight-seeded. 
Description, &c. —The name of Paris is taken from the Latin word pars, equal, because all the parts of the 
plant are in equal numbers. _ 
1.— THE COMMON HERB PARIS. (Paris quadrifolia, Lin.) 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot., t. 7 ; 2nd ed., t. 576 ; and our fig. 4, in PI. 60. 
■ Specific Character. —Leaves ovate; four in a whorl. 
Description, &c.— This curious plant, all the parts of which are in fours or twice four, grows in 
extensive patches in shady woods in many parts of Great Britain. It is a perennial, and it produces 
singular flowers in May and June. The whole plant is a powerful narcotic, and as such, is poisonous. 
tufts or 
its very 
THE ORDER DIOSCORE^E 
Only contains one British plant, viz., the Black Bryony (Tamus communis , Lin.), an elegant twiner, with 
heart-shaped leaves, and small white flowers, which are succeeded by very handsome scarlet berries. It generally 
grows in high hedges, or among woods, where it twines its graceful stem from bough to bough, sometimes hanging 
in festoons, and sometimes w T aving to and fro in the wind, as though in search of a place on which to fix. 
The leaves are glossy, and of a very deep green, and the root, which is very large and fleshy, is black on the 
outside, and so acrid that it was formerly used as a kind of blister. The plant bears a considerable outward 
resemblance to the White Bryony (Bryonia dioica), but botanically it is quite distinct. (See p. 225.) 
CHAPTER LXXIX. 
THE BUTOMUS FAMILY. (Butomea:, Rich.) 
Character of the Order. —Sepals three, herbaceous. Petals 
three, coloured, petaloid. Stamens definite, or indefinite, hypogynous. 
Ovaries superior, three, six, or more, either distinct, or united into a 
single mass; stigmas the same number as the ovaries, simple. Follicles 
many-seeded, either distinct and rostrate, or united in a single mass. 
Seeds minute, very numerous, attached to the whole of the inner 
surface of the fruit; albumen none; embryo with the same direction 
as the seed. Aquatic plants. Leaves very vascular, often yielding 
a milky juice, with parallel veins. Flowers in umbels, conspicuous, 
reddish or yellowish. ( Lindley .) 
Description, &c. —There is only one British species in this order. 
