BRYONY: A genus of the syngenesia order, belonging to the monocotyledon class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 34th order, Cucurbitaceae. The calyx of the male is five-toothed, with a quinqueflor corolla, and three filaments. In the female the calyx is dentated, the corolla quinqueflor, the style trifid, with a roundish many-seeded berry.
Species: 1. The alba, rough, or white bryony with red flowers, is a native of dry banks under hedges in many parts of Britain. The roots of this plant have by impostors been brought into a human shape, and shown for mandrakes. The method practised by these people was to find a young thriving plant of bryony; then they opened the earth all round, being careful not to disturb the lower fibres; and being provided with such a mould as is used for making platter figures, they fixed the mould close to the root, fastening it with wire to keep it in its proper situation: then they filled the earth about the root, leaving it to grow to the shape of the mould; which in one summer it will do; so that if this is done in March, by September it will have the shape. The leaves of this plant are also imposed on people for mandrake-leaves; although there is no resemblance between them, nor any agreement in quality.
2. The africana, or African tuberous rooted bryony. 3. The racemosa, or bryony with a red olive-shaped fruit. These are natives of warm climates; and are perennial; but their branches decay every winter. They flower in July; and in warm summers will perfect their seeds in Britain. 4. The cretica, or spotted bryony of Crete. 5. The variegata, or American bryony with a variegated fruit. 6. The bonariensis, or bryony with hairy palmated leaves, divided into five parts, and obtuse segments. These are likewise natives of warm countries; but merit cultivation on account of the pretty appearance they make when the plants are full of fruit.
Culture. The second and third sorts are to be planted in pots filled with fresh light earth; and in winter must be placed in the green-house to protect them from frosts and great rains, which would destroy them if they were exposed thereto. In summer, they may be exposed to the open air, and must be frequently refreshed with water in dry weather. The three last sorts are annual plants: they must be raised on a hot-bed early in the spring; and when the plants are about three inches high, they should be each transplanted into a small pot, and plunged into a hot-bed of tanner's bark. When the plants are grown so large as to ramble about on the surface of the bed, and begin to entangle with other plants, they should be shifted into larger pots, and placed in the bark-stove; where their branches may be trained to the wall, or against an espalier, that they may have sun and air, which is absolutely necessary for their producing fruit.
Medicinal Uses, &c. The roots of the first species are used in medicine. These are very large, sometimes as thick as a man's thigh: their smell, when fresh, is strong and disagreeable; the taste nauseously bitter, acrid, and biting; the juice is so sharp, as in a little time to excoriate the skin; in drying, they lose great part of their acrimony, and almost their whole scent.—Bryony-root is a strong irritating cathartic; and as such has sometimes been successfully exhibited in maniacal cases, in some kinds of dropsies, and in several chronic disorders, where a quick solution of vapid juices and a sudden stimulus on the solids were required. An extract prepared by water acts more mildly, and with greater safety, than the root in substance: given from half a dram to a dram, it is said to prove a gentle purgative, and likewise to operate powerfully by urine.—Bryony-root, applied externally, is said to be a powerful diuretic.
Black Bryony. See Tamus.