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Near the beach, by the side of the saltwater creek, I saw a beautiful species of Ruellia with terminal spikes of blue flowers, and spiny-toothed leaves, and a bushy shrub eight or ten feet high, with alternate exstipulate, simple, oval leaves, bearing a solitary, axillary, round fruit, resembling a greengage plum; the fleshy pulp covering the hard round stone has rather a bitter taste, but it is not disagreeable when ripe.
SMILAX ASPERA. The Prickly Ivy. South Europe, 1648. A trailing-habited shrub, with prickly stems, ovate, spiny-toothed, evergreen leaves, and rather unattractive flowers. S. aspera mauritanica is a hardy variety, but one that is rare in cultivation, with long, wiry shoots, and well adapted for wall or trellis covering.
The leaves of this, our native species, in their typical form are oblong-ovate, wavy, and deeply spiny-toothed. The tree flowers in May and June, while the clusters of bright red berries ripen in autumn, persist all the winter, and sometimes even hang on tree till a second crop is matured, provided they are not devoured by birds during severe weather.
Unfortunately it is not hardy in every part of the country, though in the southern and western English counties, but especially within the influence of the sea, it succeeds well as a wall plant, and charms us with its globular, waxy, crimson or coral-red flowers. The spiny-toothed leaves approach very near those of some of the Barberries, and with which the plant is nearly allied.
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