ee 
cabbage plant. It is often regarded as belong- 
ing to the same subdivision of the cabbage spe- 
cies as the borecole, or Brassica oleracea acephala; 
but it is more correctly placed by De Candolle in 
the same subdivision as the Savoy cabbage,—and 
while the latter is botanically designated Bras- 
sica oleracea bullata major, the Brussels sprouts- 
plant is designated Drassica oleracea bullata gem- 
mifera. This subvariety has very numerous 
sprouts; it is raised every year from seed sown 
in March or April; it is planted out in summer, 
at distances of two or three feet between the 
plants; and it is earthed up at the approach of 
winter. Its habits and appearance are a sort of 
medium between those of the common borecole 
and those of the Savoy cabbage. 
BRYONY,—botanically Bryonia. A genus of 
twining plants, of the gourd or cucumber family. 
One species grows wild in Great Britain ; upwards 
of twenty species have been introduced from the 
four quarters of the world; and about forty other 
species have been scientifically described. Two 
| of the species in Britain, the dicecious and the 
white, are hardy, and all the others are more or 
less tender; one, the roughish, is an annual, and 
| all the others are perennials; these three spe- 
_ cies are deciduous, and all the others are ever- 
| green ; about a dozen of the species have either 
_ subangular or palmate leaves, and most of the 
others have lobate leaves. 
The dicecious species, Bryonia dioica, is indi- 
genous in many parts of Britain, and loves to 
grow on dry banks, under hedges, and in 
thickets. It has tendrils and foliage somewhat 
|| like the vine, and climbs around Baches and trees, 
| usually to the height of from eight to ‘sane 
feet. Its root is white, rough, and large; its 
leaves are hairy, broad, and lobate; its flowers 
are small and whitish green, and bloom from 
May till September; and its berries are red and 
full of seeds. Impostors, in former times, forced 
the growing roots of this plant into the human 
shape, carried them about the country, and ex- 
hibited them to the staring credulity of the com- 
mon people under the name of mandrakes. To 
achieve this purpose, they selected a thriving 
young plant, carefully opened the soil all round 
it without disturbing its lower fibres, cautiously 
adjusted to the root a mould used for making 
plastic figures, fastened this with a wire to keep 
it firm in its place, and then filled back the soil, 
and left the root to grow to the shape of the 
mould; and when they performed this process in 
March, they usually found the root as they wished 
it in September. The root has such powerful 
properties as a stimulant, an emetic, and a pur- 
gative, as to be poisonous in moderate quantities, 
and strongly medicinal in very minute doses. The 
symptoms which it produces somewhat resemble 
those of spasmodic cholera. Many persons have 
been grievously injured and even rapidly poi- 
soned by using bryony root upon the prescrip- 
tion of herbalists. The administration of this 
BRYONY. 
mighty drug to young horses is pronounced by 
Youatt “one of the abominable secrets of the 
horse-breaker.” A state of artificial excitement 
and condition is produced by it; and when this 
passes away, as it speedily does, the animal suf- 
fers a sad diminution, either temporary or per- | 
manent, of vital power. “ We have,” says Youatt, 
“ occasionally traced much mischief to this in- | 
famous practice.” Slices of bryony root, placed 
in the pans or feeders of strawberry pots, and | 
covered lightly with moss, act as powerful de- 
coys to aphides; so that a few pans of them, 
placed four or five successive nights in the beds, 
frames, and other places infested with these in- | 
sects, will attract the whole of them, and bring 
them completely into the gardener’s power, to 
destroy them in a half pailful of boiling water. 
A peculiar bitter principle, called bryonin, is | 
obtained from the root of the dicecious bryony. 
The French cali the root the Devil’s turnip. A | 
preparation of this plant, or of Bryonza alba, 
makes a prominent figure among the medicines 
of the homeeopathists. 
The white species, Bryonza alta, has a similar | 
habit and similar medicinal properties to the | 
dicecious species; and was introduced to Britain 
about forty years ago, from the continent of 
EKurope.—The great- flowered species, Bryonia 
grandis, was yntroduced from the Hast Indies in | 
1783. It grows to the same height as the two 
preceding species, and blooms from May till | 
August. The natives of India use its leaves as 
a potherb, and eat its ripe fruit as a dessert. 
The fruit is smooth, oblong, and about an inch 
and a half in length ; and has a mawkish sweetish 
taste.—The ground or umbel-flowered species, 
Bryonia epigea, was introduced from India about 
30 .years ago, and is probably the most im- 
portant of the several species whose properties | 
Its stem is sulcate, smooth, and. 
are known. 
about two feet in height; its leaves are some- 
what fleshy, cordate, trilobate, dentate, and | 
rough; and its flowers form a raceme or umbel, 
—the male flowers five and small, and the female 
flowers single, pedunculate, and proceeding from 
the same axilla as the male flowers. ‘The root, 
as sold in the bazars of India, is of various ‘pviele 
ness and length, has a bituerish subacid taste, 
and is partially marked with whitish, raised, 
circular rings. It is considered by the physi- 
cians of India as anthelmintic and deobstruent ; 
but is employed principally i in forming a liniment 
with siragum, onions, and castor oil, for chronic 
rheumatism and contracted joints. “I must re- 
mark,” says Dr. Ainslie, in his Materia Medica 
of Apadlogiathy “that it is mucilaginous and tonic, 
stomachic and aperient, and that the natives 
employ it, in consequence, with success in the 
latter stages of dysentery; they also give it in- 
ternally for old venereal affections and chronic 
rheumatism. The root, when dried, very much 
resembles in taste the Colomba root, to which 
it also approaches in medicinal qualities.” Three 
DoT 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
