Bot. [a. L. smīlax (Pliny), a. Gr. σμῖλαξ bindweed, etc.]
1. A large genus of liliaceous plants typical of the order Smilaceæ, or a species of this genus, the tuberous rootstocks of which constitute the sarsaparilla of commerce.
In earlier writers, as Morwyng (1559) and Turner (1562), smilax is used in other senses of the L. and Gr. word, after passages in Pliny or Dioscorides.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 190. Some haue said that Smilax is of a sorts: the one … climbing trees, & tufted in the head with clusters … of berries.
c. 1610. Fairfax, Eclogues, IV. xv. Bay, Smilax, Myrtle … Grew there.
1671. Salmon, Syn. Med., III. xxii. 432. Smilax,… Bindweed; it opens the belly, dissolves hard swellings.
1710. W. King, Heathen Gods & Heroes, xxvii. (1722), 134. The Ivy, the Smilax, or Ropeweed,… were the Vegetables that he [Bacchus] delighted in.
1817. J. Bradbury, Trav. Amer., 30. There was also an abundance of small prickly vines entwined among the bushes, of a species of smilax.
1839. Audubon, Ornith. Biog., I. 302. The Green Briar, or Round-leaved Smilax,… is common along fences.
1874. Coues, Birds N. W., 162. The ravines overgrown with smilax and brambles.
attrib. 1899. F. V. Kirby, Sport E. C. Africa, xi. 124. A mass of thorny shrubs woven into an almost solid block by a growth of convolvulus creepers and of the twining smilax yam.
2. A climbing species of asparagus, Myrsiphylium asparagoides, much used for decorative purposes.
1870. Daily News, 13 June, 5/1. The sprays of smilax, the roses and violets, bloomed from baskets in the windows.
1887. The Lady, 20 Jan., 38/3. A large square of pink plush was outlined against the white damask, with a broad, graceful border of smilax.
