Bryony
or BRYONIA, a plant, bryonia dioica. It has a large root, white and branched. Its stem is long and weak, with tendrils which enable it readily to cling to bushes in the hedges and thickets where it grows. The inflorescence consists of short axillary racemes of whitish diœcious flowers with green veins. The berries are red. The plant abounds in a fetid and acrid juice.
Also a genus of plants belonging to the order cucurbitaceæ (cucurbits). B. alba, or blackberried bryony, which grows on the continent of Europe, is by some believed to be only a variety of the dioica. Several other species are found in the East Indies.