B R Y 
Sptcus. i. Bryonia albs, or black-ben re>l white bryony : 
I'.ive-- palmate, callous-fcabrous on both Tides; (lowers 
xu':: vo:is ; berries black. Black-berried white bryony 
U i : tier from the red in little el(e bclides the colour 
ui vhe '■ ries. There is a very particular defcription of it 
in ). uhin’s hiftory, from Cordus, agreeing with both in all 
:e ...I circumftances except the above, unlefs we admit 
t colour of the root, which in this is a pale colour of 
: within, in that a yellowiih white. If it be always an 
androgynous plant, that is a more material diftinfition. 
1 .tire of Sweden, Denmark, Carniala, and probably o- 
t er parts of Europe, in hedges. According to Haller, 
this is more common in Germany than the other. Pluke- 
net fays it is not unfrequent about Cambridge ; but we ne¬ 
ver heard of any other botanilt who found it there, or in 
any other place in England. 
2. Bryonia dioica, or red-berried white bryony : leaves 
palmate, callous-fcabrous on both lides ; flowers dioe- 
cous; berries red. Red-berried white bryony is eafily 
diffinguilhed by irs prodigious root, its Terns climbing by 
tendril's, leaves refembling thofe of the. vine in lliape, not 
fmooth however as they are, but harfh and rugged, and 
cf a paler colour, and by its bunches of fmall berries, 
which are red u lien ripe, and produced on a different plant 
from the male flowers. The (fern is thick, grooved, rug¬ 
ged, divided into alternate branches, and climbs the height 
of-fix feet and more, by means of fpiral tendrils which 
occafionally turn different ways. Leaves about four inches 
in length and three in breadth. There are two fpecies or 
rather varieties of the bryony, fays Mr. Ray, the one male 
or barren, in which little racemes of flowers are placed 
on a common peduncle which is a palm in length, whereas 
in ihe female or fertile plant they are on a very fhort pe¬ 
duncle fcarcely an inch long. The flowers alfo (of the 
male) are double the fize of the others, and inflead of a 
ftyle a fhort umbilicus occupies the middle, divided into 
four broad blunt fegments, furrounded with a yellow 
fringe about the edge. The other variety is female or 
fertile. The corolla is monopetalous divided into five 
(harp fegments, of a whitifh yellow colour with dark 
veins: it is placed on the top of the berry on a fhort pe¬ 
dicel iffuing from the fummit (if the berry itfelf, and falls 
off entire foon after it opens. Here we fee how accurately 
our learned countryman deferibed, and how well he un¬ 
derflood, the doctrine of the fexes in plants above acentury 
ago. It is common in hedges in moft countries of Europe : 
but with us we have not remarked it on very flrong land. 
It flowers in May. The dioecous plant with red berries 
feeras to be more generally fpread than the other. It is 
mentioned to grow in all the fouthern parts of Europe ; 
and Diofcorides deferibes his bryony with red fruit; where¬ 
as the monoecous plant with black fruit feems to be con¬ 
fined to the northern kingdoms, fome parts of Germany, 
and Carniola. By keeping them feparate, I do not mean 
pofitively to affert that they are diflintft fpecies. Linnaeus, 
as we have already feen, fays that the bryony in Sweden 
is androgynous, and has black berries. Scopoli removed 
a fingle plant from Gorizia into his garden, and found it 
to be androgynous : the berries were black. De Necker 
fays that he has feen it dioecous, but feldom: he does not 
fay whether the berries be black or red. Haller affirms, 
that they have only the red-berried plant in Switzerland, 
and that it is always dioecous there : but that the other 
with black berries is more common in Germany. Pollich 
allures us, that it is always dioecous in the Palatinate, and 
that the berries, are red. Villars infifls, that the cafe is 
the fame in Dauphine. Miller on the contrary obl'erved, 
that feveral plants (with red berries) which he cultivated 
in different parts of the garden, were of different Texes 
while young ; but that the plants which produced only 
male flowers the two firft years, afterwards had flowers of 
both fexes ; the number of. female flowers the firft year 
was fmall, but, as the plants grew older, they became more 
fruitful. The cafe is the fame in the mulberry and other 
trees which'produce flowers of both-fexes. Goats alone 
Yol. III. No. 142. 
o N I A. 46^ 
are faid to eat this plant. Two or three of the berries have 
been eaten wfthout any obfervable effects. The root of 
bryony grows to a vaft fize. Our old herbalift Gerarde 
fays, “ the Queene’s chiefe Chirurgeon, Mafter William 
Goodorus, (hewed me a roote heereof, that waied balie 
an hundred waighte, and of the bigneffe of a childe of a 
veere okle.” To this Linnaeus aferibes the quicknefs of 
its growth, though it fprings late : with us the voting 
/hoots begin to appear in March, and the plant flow- 
ers in May. The roots have been formerly by impof- 
tors brought into an human lliape, carried about the 
country, and fh'evvn for mandrakes to the common people ; 
the method which thefe people pradtifed was, to open 
the earth round a young and thriving bryony-plant, being 
careful not to difturb the lower fibres of the root; to fix a, 
mould, Inch as is ul'ed by thofe who make plafter-figures, 
dole to the root, fattening it with wire to keep it in its 
proper fituation ; and then to fill in the eartJi about the 
root, leaving it to grow to the fhape of the mould, which 
is effected in one Cummer. This root is a famous hydra- 
gogue, is highly purgative, and acrid. A urachm of it 
in fubftance, or Half an ounce infufed in wine, is a full 
dole ; fome give two drachms in dropfical cafes, and have 
ufed half an ounce of the frefh ivot, or three drachms of 
it dry in decoition, without purging. 6ome perfons it 
purges moderately, others violently j and it frequently 
becomes diuretic and diaphoretic. A cold infufion in water 
is ufed externally in fciatic pains; a cataplafm of it is a 
mod powerful difeutient; a decoftion made with a pound 
ot the frefh root is the beft purge for horned cattle. The 
adtive virtues of this plant feem to give it a claim to more 
attention than is now bellowed on it. The beft feafon to 
take up the roots for life is in the autumn, as foon as the 
(hoots decay ; but the leaves and flioots are beft in fpring, 
when they abound in juice. It is called, in Engljfh, bry¬ 
ony, white bryony , white wild vine, wild hops, wild nep, and 
tetter-berry, in German, zaunrube, Jlickwurz • in Dutch, 
witte bryone, wilde wyngaard-, in Swedifh, hundrofva ; in 
Danifh, valjkrove, galdebcer, hundebar ; in French, bryone , 
cou/euvrt'e ; in Italian, brionia, vile bianea ; in Spanifh, nu- 
eza alba . 
3. Bryonia palmata, or palmated bryony : leaves pal¬ 
mate, fmooth, and even, five-parted; divifions lanceolate, 
repand-ferrate. Leaves heart-lhaped ; berries round and 
large. Native of the ifland of Ceylon. 
4. Bryonia grandis, or great-flowered bryony : leaves 
cordate, angular, fmoothifh, glandular at the bafe under¬ 
neath ; tendrils Ample. Stem fhrubby, fmooth, large, 
branching, climbing with Ample tendrils ; leaves roundifh,, 
five-angled; flowers large, whitifh, androgynous, lateral, 
on one-flowered peduncles; berry roundifh, red, fmooth, 
five-celled; feeds few, oblong, obtufe, comprefTed. Na¬ 
tive ot India and Cochinchina. 
5- Bryonia cordifolia, or heart-leaved bryony : leaves 
cordate, oblong, five-lobed, toothed, fcabrous ; petioles 
two-toothed. Stem angular, rough. Native of Ceylon, 
6 . Bryonia laciniofa, or laciniated bryony : leaves pal¬ 
mate; divifions lanceolate, ferrate; petioles muricate. 
Leaves rugged on the upper furface, more fo beneath on 
the rib-and nerves ; fruit feilile, the fize of a cherry, red, 
with fix milk-white lines ; feeds fix. Native of Ceylon. 
7. Bryonia Africana, or African hryony : leaves pal¬ 
mate, five-parted, fmooth and even on both Tides ; divi¬ 
fions pinnatifid. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
8. Bryonia cretica, or Cretan bryony : leaves palmate, 
callous-dotted on the upper furface. Root long, running 
deep, but not fo large as that of the common fort, covered 
with a brown bark. The whole plant is rough. Leaves 
divided like thofe of thexoinmon fort, but lefs ; they are 
(Leaked with white, or have white fpots. Flowers pale, 
ffreaked, larger tnan in the common fort, on long pedi- 
cels. Fruit femiglobular, divided at top into two parts, 
red when ripe, and containing two feeds. Native of Hie 
ifland of Crete or Candia, whence the feeds were fent by 
Honorius Bellus to Cafpar Bauhin, who lowed them ia 
