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THIS BOOK MUST NOT BE TAKEN
FROM THE LIBRARY BUILDING.

AMERICAN

MEDICAL BOTANY.

VOLUME III. PART I.

AMERICAN

MEDICAL BOTANY,

BEING A COLLECTION

OF THE

NATIVE MEDICINAL PLANTS

OF THE

UNITED STATES,

CONTAINING THEIR

BOTANICAL HISTORY AND CHEMICAL ANALYSIS,

AND PROPERTIES AND USES

IN

MEDICINE, DIET, AND THE ARTS,

WITH

COLOURED ENGRAVINGS.

BY JACOB BIGELOW, M. D.

RUMFORD PROFESSOR, AND PROFESSOR OF MATERIA MEDICA IN
HARVARD TTNIVERSITY.

VOL. III.

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY CUMMINGS AND HILLIARD, AT THE BOSTON
BOOKSTORE, NO. 1 CORNHILL.

irNIV. PRESS. ...HII.LIARD AND METCALF.

1820.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME.

A he subjects of the present work, for reasons
which prevail in many publications of the kind,
have been inserted without reference to any par-
ticular arrangement or system. Those plants
received the earliest place, the observations re-
specting which were earliest matured, and the
drawings of which were first completed. Al-
though this plan has been objected to in some
foreign criticisms, it is the one pursued in several
of the most extensive and useful botanical works
of the day, which are accompanied with plates ;
and in periodical publications, or those which
appear in successive numbers, it has more than
one decided advantage. It gives time for all the
figures to be completed at leisure, from perfect
specimens, in proper and convenient seasons ; at
the same time that it does not necessitate prema-
ture and imperfect descriptions of their subjects,
which must take place were an arrangement adopt-

VI PREFACE.

ed, which might require the first insertion for
plants not jet obtained or imperfectly examined.
A systematic method may be adhered to in a work
which is furnished for the press at once, but must
occasion delay and imperfection in a periodical one.
As the American Medical Botany is terminat-
ed by the completion of its third volume, the
opportunity is now afforded for taking a methodi-
cal view of its contents. Considered in a medici-
nal point of view, the subjects will be best classed
as in systems of Materia Medica, by a reference
to their leading properties or most striking modes
of operating on the human system. In this
light they may be arranged as follow s.

Narcotics. Tonics.

Datura Stramonium, Menyanthes trifbliata,

Conium maculatum, Hamulus Lupulus,

Cicuta maculata, Eupatorium perfoliatum,

Hyoscyamus niger, Coptis trifolia,

Nicotiana tabacum, Cornus florida,

Solanum dulcamara, Gentiana Catesbeei,

Kalmialatifolia? Aletris farinosa,
Polygala rubella,

Astringents. Sabbatia angularis,

Geranium maculatum, Prinos verticillatus,

Statice Caroliniana, Liriodendron tulipifera,

Arbutus Uva ursi, Magnolia glauca.
llubus villosus, Acrid stimulants.

Rhododendron maximum, Arum triphyllum,

Nympheea odorata, Ictodes foetidus,

Myrica cerifera. Ranunculus bulbosus.

PREFACE.

Vll

Emetics.

Lobelia inflate,
Phytolacca decandra,
Gillenia trifoliata,
Veratrum viride,
Sanguinaria Canadensis,
Iris versicolor,
Apocynum androsremifolium,
Dirca palustris,
Euphorbia ipecacuanha,
Euphorbia corollata.
Erythronium Americanum.

Solidago odora,
Gaultheria procumbens,
Laurus sassafras,
Illicium Floridanum.

Diuretics.
Juniperus communis,
Pyrola Umbellata.

Expectorants.
Polygala senega,
Asclepias tuberosa.

Cathartics.
Podophyllum peltatum,
Juglans cinerea,
Triosteum perfoliatum,
Cassia marilandica,

Demulcents.
Panax quinqefolium.

Anthelmintics.
Spigelia marilandica.

Diaphoretics.
Aristolochia serpentaria,
Asarum Canadense,
Xanthoxylum fraxineum,

External stimulants.
Juniperus Virginiana,
Rhus Vernix,
Rhus radicans.

We avail ourselves of classification in the
Materia Medic a founded on the kind of operation
which medicines exert on the human body, he-
cause there are seemingly no hetter characteris-
tics by which to arrange them. But even this
method is defective, because few medicines are
simple in their operation, and of course most
of them have claims to stand in more than one
class. As examples, Tobacco, Henbane, Fox-

Vlll PREFACE.

glove, and Opium are all of them properly placed
by authors under the head of Narcotics. But of
these, Tobacco is an emetic, Henbane a cathartic,
Foxglove a diuretic, and Opium, while it checks
all other excretions, is itself sudorific. Mercury,
under its different forms and modes of adminis-
tration, is capable of fulfilling half a dozen differ-
ent intentions. The classifier of medicines then
can do no more than to arrange them by their
most obvious and well known properties, whatever
these may be, leaving it understood that the
name of a class is by no means fully descriptive
of the character of its contents.*

In forming a selection of sixty plants to be
represented in this work, it has been endeavoured
to choose those which are among the most
interesting to botanists, at the same time that
they possess claims upon the attention of medi-
cal men. It is by no means to be asserted that
all these possess so decided an efficacy as to enti-
tle them to the rank of standard medicines, or to
make it advisable that pharmacopoeias should be
swelled by their introduction. A part of them
no doubt are eminently entitled to this distinction.
Others are efficacious only in a second degree,

* For a botanical arrangement of the plants, see the systematic
index at the end of the volume.

'

PREFACE. IX

but are still in use, and often advantageously so,
in the hands of country practitioners. There
are some of yet inferior efficacy, which, having
formerly enjoyed a certain degree of medicinal
notoriety, are inserted here with a view of defin-
ing their true character.

The progress of botanical students is much
facilitated by the possession of correct drawings
and dissections of a variety of dissimilar plants.
In this country botanical figures, especially of
American plants, are scarce, and accessible to but
a small number of those who pursue this study.
It is hoped that the present work may, in a cer-
tain degree, supply the deficiency, at least until
the extension of natural science among us, and
the increased number of botanical students, shall
call forth and support works of greater magnitude.

A part of the plants contained in this work
have never been figured in any botanical work.
Others have been represented a great number of
times ; yet their importance, in a medical point of
view, required their admission ; and the figure
being always made from an American specimen,
it may, on this account, be not destitute of in-
terest.

Having arrived at the termination of the
American Medical Botany, the author feels it

X PREFACE.

incumbent on him to state, that he has at no time
had cause to regret the undertaking of a work,
which has furnished a most interesting employ-
ment for his leisure hours ; and which has been
honored with a patronage, greatly exceeding his
anticipations.

AMERICAN

MEDICAL BOTANY.

GILLENIA TRIFOLIATA.

Common Gillenia.

PLATE XLL

JN otwithstanding the principle avowed by
Linnaeus, that genera are formed by nature ; the
determination of generic consanguinity in species
occasions in many instances one of the greatest
perplexities of the botanist. What difference in
structure and external form either of flower or
fruit, is sufficient to separate families of plants
from each other ; is a point often difficult to decide ;
and is perhaps as frequently set at rest by conve-
nience and by arbitrary decision, as it is by any
unexceptionable boundaries designated in nature.
Wben the species of a vegetable order are exceed-
ingly numerous, and a close similarity pervades
the whole ; genera are multiplied by botanists,
that the discrimination of species may be facilitat-

12 GILLENIA TRIFOLIATA.

ed. Or the other hand, where a group of species
is not unwieldy from its size, or deficient in dis-
tinctive marks, the genera are made as compre-
hensive, as natural affinity will permit. The di-
versity of structure, which exists in the flowers of
Gentiana, or the fruit of Bunias, would be deemed
ample foundation for constructing half a dozen ge-
nera among the umbelliferous, leguminous, or
gramineous orders. But as the species of the
genera above have a strong agreement in one part
of their fructification, as well as in general habit,
and as no great obscurity or inconvenience results
from keeping them together, it has not been
thought worth while to multiply nomenclature by
arranging them under separate titles.

The separation of Gillenia from Spiraea is one
of those cases, upon which the botanist may hesi-
tate long, without finding reasons strong enough
to influence his decision. The natural order to
which they belong is remarkable for having its
genera well defined, so that there is no necessity
for the separation, arising from confusion or indis-
tinctness. The fruit of Gillenia is exactly the
fruit of Spiraea, and the habit of the herb in one is
not very foreign from that of the other. There is
nevertheless something in the irregular corolla,
taken in conjunction with the campanulate calyx.

COMMON GILLENIA. 13

which I think would prevent any one, at first sight,
from considering the plant a Spirsea ; and which
may afford sufficient ground for following the
example of Mcench in considering it a distinct
genus.

The Gillenia trifoliata grows in woods, in a
light soil, from Canada to Florida. In the mari-
time states I have not met with it north of the
Hudson. Its flowering time is in June and July.

The generic character, which distinguishes
this plant from Spirsea, is as follows : Calya? cam-
panulate, five toothed ; corolla irregular, petals
lanceolate, contracted near the claws ; capsules
five, The species trifoliata has iernate, lanceolate,
serrate leaves, and stipules which are minute, linea-
lanceolate and nearly entire.

Class Icosandria, order Pentagynia. Natural
orders Scnticosw, Lin, Rosacea, Juss.

This plant has commonly a number of stems
from the same root, which are a foot or two in
height, erect, slender, flexuous, smooth, commonly
of a reddish tinge, and considerahly branched.
The leaves are alternate, trifoliate, with very short
petioles, furnished with small lanceolate, slightly
toothed stipules at the base. Leafets ovate, lan-
ceolate, acuminate, sharply toothed, the upper
ones often single. The flowers are few in num-

14 G1LLENIA TRIFOLIATA.

ber, scattered, terminal, nodding, forming a sort
of panicle, with long peduncles, occasionally fur-
nished with minute lanceolate bractes. Calyx
subcampanulate, or tubular, with the lower half
narrowest, the border divided into five reflexed
acute teeth. Petals five, the two upper ones
separated from the three lower, white, with a red-
dish tinge on the edge of the outside, lanceolate,
unguiculate, contracted, and approximated at base.
Stamens about twenty in a double series within
the calyx. Germ round, styles approximated.
Capsules five, not one, as some authors have stated,
diverging, oblong, acuminate, gibbous without,
sharp edged within, two valved, one celled, one or
two seeded ; seeds oblong, corresponding in shape
to the capsule.

The root of this plant is much branched and
knotty. It consists of a woody portion, invested
with a thick bark, which when dry is brittle, and
very bitter to the taste. The predominant, solu-
ble ingredients in this root appear to be a bitter
extractive matter, and resin. When boiled in
water, it imparts to it a beautiful, deep red, wine
colour, and an intensely bitter taste. This decoc-
tion undergoes no change from alcohol or gela-
tine, though it gives a precipitate with muriate of
tin. Water distilled from the root has its peculiar

COMMON GILLENIA. 45

flavour, with little of the bitterness. A large
portion of resin is precipitated on the addition of
water to an alcoholic tincture of the root.

Under the name of Spirsea trifoliata, this plant
is well known to students of the American Materia
Medica, as an emetic. To the remarks which
have been made by various writers, I can add my
own testimony of its possessing properties in a
certain degree analogous to those of ipecacuanha.
It requires, however, a larger dose, and I have not
been satisfied that it is at all certain in its opera-
tion. At times I have known fifteen grains to
produce a full operation ; at others thirty grains
have been given to a person already predisposed
to vomit, without producing the least sensible
effect.

The best printed account which I have found
respecting its mode of operation is contained
in an Inaugural Dissertation, published at Phila-
delphia in 1810, by Dr. De la Motta, then of
Charleston, S. C. This gentleman, in addition to
other trials, took the root himself twice in sufficient
quantity to produce vomiting. "In order," he
says, " to ascertain this particular power of the
Spiraea, I, early in the morning, fasting, prescribed
for myself twenty-five grains of the powdered root
of this plant. I divided this quantity into four

46 CILLENIA TRIFOLIATA.

equal parts, one of which I took every fifteen
minutes, conceiving this a sufficient length of
time to allow for the action of each dose in my
stomach. The first dose taken produced no
manifest effect. At the expiration of fifteen
minutes I took a second dose ; — a degree of un-
easiness was experienced, attended with some
nausea ; — at the end of fifteen minutes more I
swallowed a third dose, — nausea increased, until
the convulsive action of my stomach took place.
The fourth dose was now taken ; considerable
efforts were made to vomit, and finally the con-
tents of my stomach were thrown up, together
with a profuse quantity of bile. The determina-
tion of blood to my head, the frequency of my
pulse, and heat of my system were much aug-
mented. I now drank half a pint of warm water ;
the action of my stomach subsided, and the nau-
sea gradually wore off. A portion of the medicine,
I was induced to believe, had insinuated itself
into the intestines, as two copious evacuations
were produced within the space of three hours.
During the day I felt much debilitated, but im-
puted this to the general effect of emetics.

" I was thus satisfied with respect to its efficacy
as an emetic upon an empty stomach. But, being
still desirous of becoming better acquainted with

COMMON GILLENIA. 17

its particular operation after eating an usual meal,
I made a second experiment, one month after the
first. In the morning, one hour after I had eaten
a hearty breakfast, I took twenty grains of the
medicine, in divided doses, as in the former ex-
periment. At the expiration of a very few min-
utes nausea commenced, which continuing: to
increase, with very few efforts I discharged the
contents of my stomach. The effects of the second
trial answered exactly my expectations."

Some authors have attributed a tonic power to
the Gillenia, when administered in small doses.
That it possesses sucli a power is rendered prob-
ble by its bitter taste, and by the fiict, that small
doses of ipecacuanha exert a beneficial stimulus
on the stomach in certain cases of debility in
that organ.

18 GILLENIA TRIFOLIATA.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Gillenia trifoliata, Mcench, Meth. suppl. p. 286. — Nuttall,
Genera, i. 307. — Spiraea trifoliata, Lin. — Willd. Sp. pi. ii. 1063. —
Curtis, Bot. Mag. t. 489. — Miller, Icones, 256. — Michaux, Flor.
i. 294. — Pursh, i. 243.

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

Schoepf, 80. — B. S. Barton, Coll. 26. — De la Motta, Inaugural
Dissertation.

PLATE XL1.

Fig. 1. Gillenia trifoliata.

Fig. 2. Calyx.

Fig. 3. A petal.

Fig. 4. Flower opened, shewing the situation of the stamens.

Fig. 5. Germ and styles.

Fig. 6. Styles separated.

^

( J /////.) /f/f/srv/' //,f

I

Annm iC Smctn

RHUS RADICANS,

Poison Ivy.

PLATE XLIL

Jjike the Rhus vernix, described in our first
volume, this plant is regarded with aversion, and
too frequently furnishes cause to be remembered
by persons of susceptible constitution, who un-
warily become exposed to its poisonous influence.
The general recognition of its deleterious charac-
ter is evinced in the application of the names
Poison vine, Poison creeper, and Poison Ivy,
which are given to it in all parts of the United
States.

The Rhus radicans is a pretty common
inhabitant of the borders of fields and of woods
in most soils which are not very wet. Its mode
of growth is much like that of the common
creeper, the Ampelopsis quinquefolia of Michaux ;
and like that vine, and the European Ivy, it
would doubtless be cultivated for ornament, were

20 RHUS RADICANS.

it harmless as it is handsome. As its name
implies, this vine ascends upon tall objects in its
neighbourhood by means of strong lateral rooting
fibres, which project in great numbers from its
sides, and attach themselves to the bark of trees
and the surface of stones. The extreme branches
of these fibres appear very strong in proportion
to their fineness, and insinuate themselves into
the minutest pores and crevices. The adhesion
of the vine to the bark of trees is frequently so
strong, that it cannot be torn off without breaking,
and I have repeatedly seen large stems of the
Rhus completely buried in the trunks of old
trees, the bark having grown over and enveloped
them. The fibres are analogous in their struc-
ture to fine roots, and consist of a regular wood
and bark. They are sometimes thrown out in
such numbers on all sides, as to give the vine a
shaggy appearance and conceal its bark. In
general, however, they tend to the shady side,
and are attracted toward opaque objects, furnish-
ing an exemplification of Mr. Knight's beautiful
explanation of motion in tendrils, which, by their
propensity to avoid the light and approach the
shade, are directed into contact with bodies
capable of yielding them support.

POISON IVY. 21

The size of the stem in this vine is commonly
not more than an inch. Sometimes, however, in
very old plants, it is found several times as large.
It is usually compressed on the side which
adheres to the support. In favourable situations
it ascends to the tops of the highest rocks and
trees, and is often seen restoring to decayed
trunks the verdure which they have lost. When
it does not meet with an elevated prop, the plant
becomes stunted in its growth, is more branched,
and affects a spiral mode of growth ; or falls to
the ground, takes root and rises again.

The genus Rhus is placed by Linnseus in
the class Pentandria, and order Trigynia. The
present species, however, is dioecious, a fact
which is also true of most of the American
species of Rhus which 1 have examined. The
Shoes belong to the Linnsean natural order
Dumosw, and to the Terebintacece of Jussieu.

The leaves of the Rhus radicans are ternate,
and grow on long semicylindrical petioles.
Leafets ovate or rhomboidal, acute, smooth and
shining on both sides, the veins sometimes a
little hairy beneath. The margin is sometimes
entire and sometimes variously toothed and
lobed, in the same plant. The flowers are small
and greenish white. They grow in panicles or

22 RHUS RADICALS.

compound racemes on the sides of the new
shoots, and are chiefly axillary. The barren
flowers have a calyx of five erect, acute segments,
and a corolla of five oblong recurved petals.
Stamens erect with oblong anthers. In the
centre is a rudiment of a style. — The fertile
flowers, situated on a different plant, are about
half the size of the preceding. The calyx and
corolla are similar but more erect. They have
five small, abortive stamens and a roundish germ
surmounted with a short, erect style, ending in
three stigmas. The berries are roundish and of
a pale green colour, approaching to white.

A plant has long appeared in the Pharmaco-
poeias under the name of Rhus toxicodendron.
Botanists are not agreed whether this plant is a
separate species from the one under considera-
tion, or whether they are varieties of the same.
Linnaeus made them different with the distinction
of the leaves being naked and entire in Rhus
radicans, while they are pubescent and angular
in Rhus toxicodendron. Michaux and Pursh,
whose opportunities of observation have been
more extensive, consider the two as mere local
varieties ; while Elliott and Nuttall still hold
them to be distinct species. Among the plants
which grow abundantly around Boston, I have

POISON IVY. 23

frequently observed individual shoots from the
same stock having the characters of both varieties.
I have also observed that young plants of Rhus
radicans frequently do not put out rooting fibres
until they are several years old, and that they
seem, in this respect, to be considerably influ-
enced by the contiguity of supporting objects.

The wood of the Poison Ivy is brittle, fine
grained and white, with a yellow heart in the old
plants.

If a leaf or stem of this plant be broken off,
a yellowish milky juice immediately exudes from
the wounded extremity. After a short exposure
to the air, it becomes of a deep black colour and
does not again change. This juice, when applied
to linen, forms one of the most perfect kinds of
indelible ink. It does not fade from age,
washing, or exposure to any of the common
chemical agents. I have repeatedly, when in
the country, marked my wristband with spots of
this juice. The stain was at first faint and
hardly perceptible, but in fifteen minutes it
became black, and was never afterwards eradi-
cated by washing, but continued to grow darker
as long as the linen lasted.

Dr. Thomas Horsfield, in his valuable disser-
tation on the American species of Rhus, made

24* RHUS RADICANS.

various unsuccessful experiments with a view to
ascertain the nature of this colouring principle,
and the means of fixing it on stuffs. He found
that the juice, expressed from the pounded leaves,
did not produce the black colour, and that strong
decoctions of the plant, impregnated with various
chemical mordants, produced nothing more than
a dull yellow, brownish or fawn colour. The
reason of this is, that the colouring principle
resides not in the sap, but in the succus proprhis
or peculiar juice of the plant, that this juice
exists only in small quantity, and is wholly insol-
uble in water, a circumstance which contributes
to the permanency of its colour, at the same time
that it renders some other medium necessary for
its solution.

With a view to ascertain the proper menstru-
um for this black substance, I subjected bits of
cloth stained with it, to the action of various
chemical agents. Water, at various temperatures
assisted by soap and alkali, produced no change
in its colour. Alcohol, both cold and boiling, was
equally ineffectual. A portion of the cloth, di-
gested several hours in cold ether with occasional
agitation, was hardly altered in appearance.
Sulphuric acid reddened the spots, but scarcely
rendered them fainter. The fumes of oxymuriatic

POISON IVY. 25

acid which bleached vegetable leaves and bits of
calico in the same vessel, exerted no effect on this
colour.

Boiling ether is the proper solvent of this
juice. A piece of linen spotted with the Ehus
was immersed in ether and placed over a lamp.
As soon as the fluid boiled, the spot began to
grow fainter, and in a few minutes was wholly
discharged, the ether acquiring from it a dark
colour. The linen at the same time became
tinged throughout with a pale greyish colour,
acquired from the solution.

This nigrescent juice, in common with that
of the Rhus vernix, has, perhaps, claims to be
considered a distinct proximate principle in
vegetable chemistry.

The leaves and bark are astringent to the
taste, which quality appears to be occasioned by
gallic acid rather than tannin. The infusion and
decoction become black on the addition of salts
of iron, but discover hardly any sensibility to
gelatin.

A poisonous quality exists in the juice and
effluvium of this plant, like that which is found
in the Rhus vernix already described. It is said,
that some other species of Rhus, such as Rhus
pumilum aud Rhus typhinum, possess the same
4

26 RHUS RADICANS.

property in a greater or less degree. The poison
Ivy, however, appears to he less frequently inju-
rious than the poison Dogwood, and many persons
can come in contact with the former with impu-
nity, who are soon affected by the latter. I have
never, in my own person, been affected by hand-
ling or chewing the Rhus radicaus, though the
Rhus vernix has often occasioned a slight eruption.
Indeed, the former plant is so commonly diffused
by road-sides and near habitations, that its ill
consequences must be extremely frequent, were
many individuals susceptible of its poison.

Those persons who are constitutionally liable
to the influence of this poison, experience from it
a train of symptoms very similar to those which
result from exposure to the Rhus vernix. These
consist in itching, redness and tumefaction of the
affected parts, particularly of the face ; succeeded
by blisters, suppuration, aggravated swelling,
heat, pain, and fever. When the disease is at its
height, the skin becomes covered with a crust,
and the swelling is so great as in many instances
to close the eyes and almost obliterate the features
of the face. The symptoms begin in a few hours
after the exposure, and are commonly at the height
on the fourth or fifth day ; after which, desqua-
mation begins to take place, and the distress, in
most instances, to diminish.

POISON IVY. ^T

Sometimes the eruption is less general, and
confines itself to the part which has been exposed
to contact with the poison. A gentleman, with
whom I was in company, marked his wristband
with the fresh juice, to observe the effect of the
colour. The next day his arm was covered with
an eruption from the wrist to the shoulder, but
the disease did not extend further. It sometimes
happens that the eruption continues for a longer
time than that which has been stated, and that one
set of vesications succeeds another, so as to protract
the disease beyond the usual period of recovery.

The symptoms of this malady, though often
highly distressing, are rarely fatal. I have nev-
ertheless been told of cases in which death
appeared to be the consequence of this poison.

The disease brought on by the different
species of Rhus appears to be of an erysipelatous
nature. It is to be treated by the means which
resist inflammation, such as rest, low diet, and
evacuations. Purging with the neutral salts is
peculiarly useful, and in the case of plethoric
constitutions, or where the fever and arterial
excitement are very great, blood-letting has been
found of service.

The extreme irritability and burning sensa-
tion may be greatly mitigated by opium. Cold

28 RHUS RADICANS.

applications, in the form of ice or cold water, are
strongly recommended by Dr. Horsefield in his
treatise, and when persevered in, they appear to
exert a remarkably beneficial effect. The acetate
of lead is perhaps as useful as any external
palliative, and it should be used in solution rather
than in the ointment, that it may be applied as
cold as possible. The late Dr. Barton speaks
highly of a solution of corrosive sublimate exter-
nally applied in this disease, but from trials of
the two remedies made at the same time and
in the same patient, I have found the lead the
more beneficial of the two.

A person who has been in contact with the
Rhus and finds himself poisoned, should imme-
diately examine his hands, clothes, £)C to see if
there are no spots of the juice adhering to him.
These, if present, should be removed, as they will
otherwise serve to keep up and extend the dis-
order. From a want of this precaution, the
disease is frequently transferred from the hands
to different parts of the body, and likewise kept
up for a longer time than if the cruise had been
early removed. As washing does not eradicate
the stains of this very adhesive juice, it is best to
rub them off with some absorbent powder.

POISON IVY. 29

The Rhus radicans has been administered
internally in certain diseases by a few practi-
tioners in Europe and America. Dr. Horsefield,
in several instances, administered a strong
infusion in the dose of about a teacup full to
consumptive and anasarcous patients. It ap-
peared to act as an immediate stimulant to the
stomach, producing some uneasiness in that
organ, also promoting perspiration and diuresis.
Some practitioners in the Middle States, we are
told by the same author, have exhibited it with
supposed benefit in pulmonary consumption. A
French physician, Du Fresnoy, has reported
seven cases of obstinate herpetic eruption, which
were cured by the preparations of this plant.
His attention was drawn to the subject by finding
that a young man who had a dartre upon his
wrist of six years' standing, was cured of it by
accidentally becoming poisoned with this plant.
The same physician administered the extract in
several cases of palsy, four of which, he says, were
cured by it.

Dr. Alderson, of Hull, in England, gave the
Rhus toxicodendron in doses of half a grain, or a
grain three times a day, in several cases of
paralysis ; and states, that all his patients recov-
ered, to a certain degree, the use of their limbs.

30 KHUS RADICANS.

The first symptom of amendment was an un-
pleasant feeling of prickling or twitching in the
paralytic limbs. Dr. Duncan, author of the
Edinburgh Dispensatory, states, that he had
given it in larger doses without experiencing the
same success, although he thinks it not inactive
as a medicine.

My own opinion is, that the plant under
consideration is too uncertain and hazardous to
be employed in medicine, or kept in apothecaries'
shops. It is true, that not more than one person
in ten is probably susceptible of poison from it.
Yet, even this chance, small as it is, should deter
us from employing it. In persons not constitu-
tionally susceptible of the eruptive disease, it is
probably an inert medicine, since we find that
Du Fresnoy's patients sometimes carried the
dose as high as an ounce of the extract, three
times a day, without perceiving any effect from it.

It is true that the external application of the
Rhus radicans and Rhus vernix would, in certain
cases, afford a more violent external stimulus,
than any medicinal substance with which we are
acquainted. But since it is neither certain in its
effect, nor manageable in its extent, the prospect
of benefit, even in diseases like palsy and mania,
is not sufficient to justify the risk of great evil,

POISON IVY. 31

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Rhus radicans, Willd. Sp. pi. i. 1481. — Elliott, i. — Rhus
toxicodendron, &c. Michaux, Flor. i. 183. — Pursh, i. 205. — Toxi-
codendron rectum &c. — Dillenius, Elth. U £91.

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

Du Fresnoy, quoted in Annals of Medicine, iv. 182. — v. 483. —
Med. and Phys. Journal, i. 308. — vi. 273. — x. 486. — Duxcan, Dis-
pells. 294 — Horsefield, Dissertation, Philad. 1798.

PLATE XLII.

Fig. 1. Rhus radicans, the barren plant in flower.

Fig. 2. Fruit.

Fig. 3. Barren flower.

Fig. 4. Fertile flower.

Fig. 5. Petal.

Fig. 6. Stamens and rudiment of a style in the barren flower.

Fig. 7. Getm, style and abortive stamens in the fertile flower.

MYRICA CERIFERA.

Wax Myrtle,

PLATE XLIII.

Almost every region of the United States
produces varieties of the Wax myrtle. Michaux
considers them all as belonging to one species, a
conclusion which is warranted by the great num-
ber of intermediate sizes, and forms of leaf, which
may be observed between the different extremes.
Pursh, however, has chosen to distinguish three
species which bear wax, and which he names
cerlfera after Linnaeus, Caroliniensis from Will-
denow, and Fennsylvanica from Lamarck. The
Wax myrtle or Bay berry, as it is often called,
which is common in New England, varies in
height from one to seven or eight feet. It is
found in every kind of soil from the borders of
swamps to the tops of barren hills, and is very
much influenced in its size and appearance, by
the place in which it happens to grow.

ff

, ////{frfr rrrs/rrsr

WAX MYRTLE. 66

The genus Myrica belongs to the class Lioecia
and order Tetrandria. It is also ranked among
the Mientacem of Linnaeus and Jussieu.

The generic character consists in an imbri-
cated ament ; the scales without a corolla ; the
barren flowers containing four anthers, the fertile
ones two styles. Fruit, one seeded. — The spe-
cific character, as given by Michaux, is as follows.
Leaves wedge-lanceolate, with a few serratures at
top ; barren aments lax ; fruit spherical, naked,
distinct.

The Wax myrtle is found bearing fruit at
every size, from the height of one foot, to six or
eight. In Louisiana, it is said to grow to twelve
feet. The top is much branched, and covered
with a grayish bark. The leaves are wedge-
lanceolate, varying in width, sometimes entire,
but more frequently toothed, particularly toward
the end. They are somewhat pubescent, a little
paler beneath, and generally twisted, or revolute
in their mode of growth. They are inserted in a
scattered manner by short petioles. The flowers
appear in May before the leaves are fully ex-
panded. The barren ones grow in catkins, which
are sessile, erect, about half an inch or three
quarters long ; originating from the sides of the
last year's twigs. Every flower is formed by a

34 MYRICA CERIFERA.

concave rhomboidal scale, containing three or
four pairs of roundish anthers on a branched
footstalk. The fertile flowers, which grow on a
different shrub, are less than half the size of the
barren ones, and consist of narrower scales, with
each an ovate germ, and two filiform styles.

To these aments succeed clusters or aggre-
gations of small globular fruits resembling berries,
which are at first green, but finally become nearly
white. They consist of a hard stone inclosing a
dicotyledonous kernel. This stone is studded on
its outside with small black grains resembling
fine gun-powder, over which is a crust of dry
white wax, fitted to the grains and giving the
surface of the fruit a granulated appearance.
Botanically speaking, this fruit has been im-
properly called a berry, and a drupe ; since it is
always dry and never invested with a cuticle, or
any thing but the grains and wax.

Every young part of the Wax myrtle has a
fragrant, balsamic smell, which it communicates
to the fingers when rubbed by them. This
appears to be derived from a resinous exudation,
which may be seen in minute points of a bright
transparent yellow, covering the young shoots
and under surface of the leaves. In the berries
this resinous substance is within the wax.

WAX MYRTLE. 35

The bark and leaves of the Myrica cerifera
contain gallic acid, tannin, resin, and a small
quantity of mucilage, which are manifested by
their usual tests.

The wax of the Myrica is obtained for com-
mon purposes by boiling large quantities of the
berries in kettles with water enough to cover
them to the depth of several inches. The ber-
ries, which float at first, gradually subside to the
bottom when the wax is melted off, which latter
substance floats on the surface. When the
boiling has been continued long enough to divest
the berries of most of their wax, the liquid is
suffered to cool, and the wax concretes on the top.
It is purified by melting it anew, and is then cast
into masses.

In this state it is of a greenish gray colour,
with a consistence which is intermediate between
that of bees wax and tallow, being brittle and not
remarkable for adhesiveness or unctuosity. It
burns with a white flame, which is less vivid than
that of tallow or whale oil.

The chemical properties of this wax have
been examined by M. Cadet, in France, and Dr.
Bostock, in England. From their experiments,
we learn that water has no action on the Myrtle
wax, either cold or at the boiling heat. Dr.

36 MYRICA CERIFERA.

Bostock informs us that alcohol, at the ordinary
temperature of the atmosphere, has no action
upon it ; hut one hundred parts by weight of the
fluid, when boiling, dissolve about five parts of
the wax. About four fifths of this is deposited
by cooling, and the rest is slowly deposited in a
few days, or may be precipitated by water. Of
the mass of wax, a certain portion remains insol-
uble in alcohol.

Sulphuric ether, according to Dr. Bostock,
dissolves but little of the wax, when cold, but
acts upon it rapidly, when boiling, taking up
somewhat more than one quarter of its own
weight. Upon evaporation, the wax is deposited
in a crystalline or lamellated form, its texture
resembling that of spermaceti. — Rectified oil of
turpentine, when assisted by heat, dissolves about
six per cent of its own weight, most of which is
deposited on cooling. — Pure potash, in water,
renders the wax colourless by boiling, and forms
a soap with a small part, which may be decom-
posed by an acid, and affords the wax nearly un-
changed.— The sulphuric acid, assisted by heat,
dissolves about one twelfth of its own weight, and
forms a dark brown mass. The nitric and muriatic
acids exert very little action upon it. Dr. Bostock
considers the Myrtle wax to be a fixed vegetable
oil, rendered concrete by oxygen.

WAX MYRTLE. 37

M. Cadet, in addition to many of the above
characteristics of Myrtle wax, found that it com-
bined readily with the semivitreous oxyde of lead,
forming a very hard plaister. When distilled in
a retort, the wax was partly decomposed, and a
portion which passed over was white and of a
soft consistence. Oxygenated muriatic acid
bleaches it, but with more difficulty than bees
wax.

The experiments which I have made on this
substance confirm the preceding statements with
the following exceptions. Cold alcohol dissolves
a minute portion, which is gradually separated by
the addition of water, and floats in perceptible
Jlocci, near the surface. Cold ether dissolves
about one sixteenth of its weight. This it does
with great rapidity, and if thin shavings of the
wax be dropped into a vessel of ether, they
disappear almost immediately.

Dr. J. F. Dana has published, in Silliman's
Journal, an account of some experiments made
to ascertain the proportion of wax, and of the
other parts which compose the entire berry.
He found the wax to constitute nearly a third of
the whole, or thirty two per cent ; the kernels
47.00, the black powder 15.00, with about 5.00 of
a resino- extractive matter.

38 MYRICA CERIFERA.

There undoubtedly exists, in the berries of
this shrub, some interesting constituents beside
the wax and insoluble portions, as the following
results will show. If water be distilled from the
fresh berries, it acquires a slight pearly appear-
ance and a fine aromatic odour and taste. This
indicates the presence of a volatile oil, though I
have not performed the experiment sufficiently
in the large way to obtain any oil separate. The
decoction remaining in the retort gives proofs of
gallic acid.

When the wax, in a separate state, is boiled
in alcohol, a portion is dissolved, which is mostly
deposited on cooling, leaving the fluid clear.
But if alcohol be boiled upon the berries till a
strong solution is formed, it does not give a
deposit on cooling, but the solution coagulates
into a soft solid and remains afterwards unaltered.
This coagulum is readily soluble in cold ether,
and melts when exposed to heat. If the berries
be boiled in water until the wax is melted and
principally detached, the remaining parts still
give a coagulating solution with alcohol. — The
tincture made by digesting cold alcohol on the
bruised berries is considerably coloured, and
becomes turbid on the addition of water, but
whether the resinous substance thus precipitated

WAX MYRTLE. 39

is the same in small quantity, which produces
the coagulation in a large one j I am not pre-
pared to say.

It appears, then, that there exists in the
berries of the Myrica a peculiar vegetable prin-
ciple, hearing nearly the same relation to alcohol,
as starch and gelatin do to water. I have not yet
obtained it in a separate state, and cannot there-
fore give any additional characteristics to those
which have been already stated.

The Myrtle wax is useful for many of the
purposes for which bees wax and tallow are
employed, particularly for candles. It burns
with a clear flame, though less vivid than that of
common oil, and emits a considerable fragrance.
It Was formerly much in demand as an ingredi-
ent in a species of blacking ball, to which it com-
municated a temporary lustre and power of re-
pelling water. It has occasionally been used
in pharmacy in various compositions intended for
external use, and is mild or stimulating according
as it is more or less pure and freed from the
colouring matter.

In some parts of Europe plantations of this
shrub have been raised with a view to the profit
to be derived from the wax. In this country,
where the shrub abounds, the berries are often

40 M VllIC A C£RIF££lA.

neglected, their collection and the separation of
the wax being deemed too laborious to compen-
sate the trouble.

In Dr. Thatcher's Dispensatory, we are in-
formed, on the authority of Dr. Mann, that the
bark of the root of the Myrica cerifera is emetic.
With a view to examining thoroughly its medici-
nal properties, Dr. S. L. Dana, in 1818, made it
the subject of an inaugural dissertation. He
found that the powdered bark was acrid and as-
tringent, but did not appear to possess any other
qualities than were attributable to those two.
Moderate doses of the powder and decoction pro-
duced no effect on the stomach or bowels. Large
doses, for instance two scruples, were swallowed
with difficulty on account of their acrimony, and
occasioned heat and nausea at the stomach.
Larger doses, of a drachm, produced a powerful
burning sensation and vomiting. Costiveness
generally followed the use of this medicine. The
powder, when snuffed up the nose, proved pow-
erfully sternutatory, and when applied to the
fungous granulations of an ulcerated leg,, it pro-
duced so much pain as compelled the patient to
wash it off.

We may then consider the bark of the Myrica
as an acrid stimulant and astringent. That it

WAX MYRTLE. 41

sometimes proves emetic, in large doses, is to be
explained in the same way as the operation of
mustard and horse-radish, which some of the
older physicians employed as emetics. When
the stomach is burdened with an undue quantity
of stimulus, it naturally tends to relieve itself by

vomiting.

On the whole, we are to esteem the Myrica
cerifera as more interesting in a chemical, than a
medical point of view. The pleasant aroma of
the water distilled from the berries, and the ap-
plication of the wax to some purposes of phar-
macy, are all, that this shrub at present offers,
much deserving the attention of physicians.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Myrica cerifera, Willd. iv. 745.— Michaux, ii. 227.— Pursh,
ii. 620, — Myrtus foliis lanceolatis, &c. — Gronovius, 155. — Myrtus
brabanticEe similis, &c. — Catesby, i. 13 ?

MEDICAL AND CHEMICAL REFERENCES.

Cadet, translated in Nicholson's Journal, 8vo. vol. iv. 1 87.

Bostock, in ditto, 129. — Kalm, Travels, i, 129. — Dana, in Silliman's
Journal, vol. i. — Thacher, JDisp. 288.

48 MYRICA CERIFERA.

PLATE XLIII.

Fig. 1. Myrica cerifera, icith fruit not fully ripe.

Fig. 2. A barren branch in flower.

Fig. 5. Fertile ditto in flower.

Fig. 4. Jl barren flower.

Fig. 5. Tlie same with the scale turned down, shewing the mode

of growth of the anthers*
Fig. 6. Fertile flower.
Fig. 7. Fruit somewhat magnified.

rr. jcz,nr

S 4

J/// // ///rr//J er>;//;s/'f" '-■>

JUNIPEKUS COMMUNIS.

Common Juniper.

PLATE XLIV*

JL he prostrate variety of the common Juniper
is so peculiar in its mode of growth, that it has
some claims to he considered a distinct species.
On comparing it, however, with European speci-
mens, I find the similarity so great, that I do not
see sufficient grounds for separating it, especially
as there are, in Europe, several varieties in size
and mode of growth, which are not recognized as
separate species. The variety, which is the only
one I have met with in the Northern States, is a
large trailing shrub, continually throwing out
roots from its branches, and spreading in ail
directions until it forms beds, which are many
rods in circumference. In this way it continues
to advance outward, supporting itself by new
roots even after the original trunks, at the centre,

* Very beautiful drawings, from which this and the following
plate are engraved, were sent me by a lady in Hampshire county.

44 JUNIPERUS COMMUNIS.

are dead and decayed. It seldom rises more than
two or three feet from the ground.

The genus Juniperus belongs to the class
Bioecia, order Monadelphia, and natural order
Conifer ce of Linnaeus and Jussieu. It is distin-
guished by an ovate anient with peltate scales,
which, in the barren flowers, are whorled in threes,
with from two to four anthers ; in the fertile ones
opposite. Berry three seeded. — In the common
Juniper, the leaves are ternate, spreading, mncro-
nate, larger than the berry.

The Juniper is with us always a shrub, never
rising into a tree. The tips of the branches are
smooth and angular. The leaves grow in threes
and are linear-acerose, sharply mucronate, shining
green on their lower surface, but witli a broad
glaucous line through the centre of the upper.
These leaves, however, are always resupinate, and
turn their upper surface toward the ground.
The barren flowers grow in small axillary aments,
with roundish, acute, stipitate scales, inclosing
several anthers. The fertile flowers, growing on
a separate shrub, have a small, three parted calyx
growing to the germ ; and three styles. The fruit
is a fleshy, roundish, oblong berry, of a dark
purplish colour, formed of the germ and conflu-
ent calyx, marked with three prominences or

COMMON JUNIPER. 45

vesicles at top, and containing- three seeds. It
requires two seasons to arrive at maturity from
the flower.

The leaves of the Juniper have a strong* and
rather unpleasant taste, with a little astringency.
The peculiar juice of the bark appears to consist
of resin and volatile oil. Gum Sandarach, which
furnishes the material of pounce, is obtained from
the European Juniper, from which it exudes
spontaneously through crevices and perforations
in the bark.

The part principally used in medicine is the
berries. These have a strong peculiar taste,
accompanied with considerable sweetness. When
long chewed, they leave an impression of bitter-
ness. The sweetness appears to reside in the
pulp, the bitterness in the seeds, or in their im-
mediate investment, and the aromatic flavour in
the essential oil. Dr. Lewis observes, that tinc-
tures, made with these berries, differ according
as they are prepared with the berries entire or
bruised.

When of a good quality these berries yield, in
distillation, a large quantity of pungent, volatile
oil of a peculiar flavour, the same which it com-
municates to gin. The medicinal powers, for
which this article is employed, may be considered
as residing in this oil.

46 JUNIPERUS COMMUNIS.

The berries of the Juniper have long been
employed for the purposes of a diuretic, particu-
larly in dropsy. Many of the older writers, whose
names are of high authority in medicine, have
given favorable reports of the operation of this
medicine in hydropic cases. It has been used in
substance, in infusion, and in various compound
medicines. The effects of its most popular prepara-
tion, that of an ardent spirit, are too universally
known to require particular elucidation. In addi-
tion to the specific effect of the essential oil,
some physicians have attributed virtues to the
rob, or inspissated decoction of the berries. Hoff-
man found it of great use in debility of the stomach
and intestines, particularly in old people. The
stronger preparations have been found useful in
uterine obstructions, and in paralytic affections of
the vesica urinaria.

Linnaeus informs us, in his Flora Lapponica,
that a fermented decoction of Juniper berries is
used in Sweden as a common drink, but he denies
the infusion being substituted for tea and coffee,
as some writers have stated, in Lapland. Wood-
ville and others have misquoted him on this
point.

The American Juniper berries are considera-
bly inferior to the European in strength and

Common juniper. 47

flavour. The best of the latter are said to be
from Italy. But of the imported specimens,
which I have examined at the druggists' shops
in this country, very few possess any remains of
the original strength, and much the greater
portion of them appear to have undergone at
least one distillation, before their exportation from
Europe. The best Juniper berries have a strong
impregnation of volatile oil, which, having been
once tasted, cannot be easily mistaken. Those
which have been subjected to distillation are dry
and tasteless.

BOTANICAL BEFERENCES.

Juniperus communis, Linn. — Smith, Flor. Brit. iii. 1085. — Engl.
Hot. t. 1100. — Woodville, ii. t. 95. — Michaux, ii. 245. — Puksh, ii;
646. — Blackwell, t. 187.

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

Murray, App. Med. i. 34. — Lewis, Disp. 240. — Linn^i/s, Flora
Lap}). 376. — Woodville, ut supra.

48 JUNIPERUS COMMUNIS.

PLATE XLIV.

Fig. 1. Ji branch ofJuniperus communis in fruit.

Fig. 2. A barren twig in flower.

Fig. 3. Barren ament.

Fig. 4. Scale of anthers of the same.

Fig. 5. Fertile flower.

JUNIPERUS VIRGIMANA.

Red Cedar.

PLATE XLV.

Unlike the subject of the preceding article
this species rises into a tree of considerable size.
It is the largest of the Junipers growing within
the original limits of the United States, though
it appears that Lewis and Clarke brought home
specimens of a lofty tree, with foliage resembling
the Savin, found on the banks of streams among
the Rocky mountains, and which is supposed to
be the same with J. excelsa, growing in Siberia.

Michaux, in his North American Sylva, in-
forms us, that it is found from Maine and from
Lake Champlain, without interruption to the
Cape of Florida. In the Middle and Northern
states, it frequents the most barren soils, being
found in abundance upon dry, rocky hills, where
scarcely any other tree can subsist. Its size,
however, is said to be here inferior to that which
it attains in Virginia, and farther south.
7

50 JUNIPERUS VIRGINIANA.

Its habit and foliage abundantly distinguish it
from the species in the last article. From the
Juniperus Sabina, or common Savin of Europe,
its botanical distinction is by no means easy.
The general appearance and arrangement of the
leaves in the full grown specimens of both is
precisely the same, except that in the Red cedar
the leaves are shorter and more compactly im-
bricated, having an ovate form, while in the
Savin they are somewhat longer and more remote,
and may be called lanceolate. In the Red cedar
they are also more universally and pungently
acute. The characters of the latter species,
which I have seen given by different botanists,
are almost all defective, in ascribing to it ternate
leaves, which, I believe, never exist except in
imperfect or distorted specimens. Its more true
character is as follows. Trunk arboreous, upper
leaves imbricated in four roivs, ovate, pungently
acute. It is by no means certain that on mature
examination all the present species of Juniper
will be found sufficiently distinct to be kept
separate.

The Red cedar, when full grown, is a middling
sized tree, though, on account of the value of its
wood, it is seldom suffered to reach its full dimen-
sions. The trunk is straight and decreases rapidly

RED CEDAR. 51

from the ground, giving off many horizontal
hranches. Its surface is generally unequal, and
disfigured by knots, and the crevices and protu-
berances they occasion. The small twigs are cov
ered with minute, densely imbricated leaves, which
continue to increase in size as the branch grows,
till they are broken up and confounded with the
rough bark. These leaves are fleshy, ovate, con-
cave, rigidly acute, marked, with a small depressed
gland on the middle of their outer side, growing
in pairs, which are united at base to each other,
and to the pairs above and below them. They do
not alter their situation, but continue opposite till
they are obliterated by age. A singular variety
sometimes appears in the young shoots, especially
those which issue from the base of the trees. This
consists in an elongation of the leaves to five or
six times their usual length, while they become
spreading, acerose, considerably remote from each
other, and irregular in their insertion, being
either opposite or ternate. These shoots are so
dissimilar to the parent tree that they have
repeatedly been mistaken for individuals of a
different species. — The barren flowers grow in
small oblong aments, formed by peltate scales
with the anthers concealed within them. The
fertile flowers have a proper perianth, which

52 JUNIPERUS VIRGINIANA,

coalesces with the germ and forms a small round-
ish berry, with two or three seeds, covered on its
outer surface with a bright blue powder.

The leaves of the Red cedar have a strong
disagreeable taste, with some pungency and
bitterness. The peculiar taste and odour reside,
no doubt, in a volatile oil, which, however, is
not readily separated by distillations in a small
way. The tincture becomes turbid when water
is added, and very much so if suffered to stand
a day or two. The presence of tannin is devel-
oped by the admixture of dissolved isinglass, with
a decoction of the bark and leaves.

The botanical similarity of this tree to the
Savin, which is an European shrub, has already
been mentioned. In their sensible and medicinal
properties, they are equally allied. The taste of
the two species is nearly the same, except that
the cedar leaves are the more nauseous of the
two. As the American tree is frequently known
throughout the country by the name of Savin, our
apothecaries have been led to presume upon its
identity with that medicine, and it has long been
used in cases where the true Savin is recom-
mended. Its most frequent use, however, is in
the composition of the cerate employed for keep-
ing up the irritation and discharge of blisters.

RED CEDAR. 53

This preparation is the same with the Savin
cerate, used in Europe, the leaves of the Red
cedar being substituted for those of the Savin.
When properly prepared by boiling the fresh
leaves for a short time in about twice their weight
of lard with the addition of a little wax, a cerate
is formed of peculiar efficacy as a perpetual
epispastic. When applied as a dressing to a
newly vesicated surface, and afterwards repeated
twice a day, it rarely fails to keep up the dis-
charge for an indefinite length of time. Under
its operation, the discharge usually changes from
a serous to a puriform appearance, and concretes
upon the surface 5 so that it requires to be re-
moved from time to time, to admit the full action
of the cerate.

Iuternally the leaves of the Juniperus Virgin-
iana have been found to exert effects very similar
to those of the Savin. They have proved useful
as an emmenagogue, and as a general stimulant
and diaphoretic in rheumatism. They have also
had some reputation as a diuretic in dropsy.

The wood of the Red cedar is smooth, liffht,
and very durable. Its alburnum is white, but
the heart wood of a beautiful red colour, whence
its name is derived. t It is principally employed
for posts in fences, in which capacity it proves

54 JUNIPERUS VIRGINIANA.

more durable than almost any species of wood
used for the same purpose.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Juniperus Virginiana, Willd, iv. 862. — Puhsh, ii. 647". — Mi-
uHAcXjjiL «JV. Jl. Sylva, t. 155.

MEDICAL REFERENCE.

Thacher, Disp. 247.

PLATE XLV.

Fig. 1. Juniperus Virginiana in fruit,
Fig. 2. Variety with long leaves.
Fig. 3. Barren branch in flower.
Fig. 4. Barren anient magnified.
Fig;. 5. Scale and anthers.

m I i i

ic n //>-/■ n ///f,'i / ; i A '// < / f<

MENYANTHES TR1F0LIATA.

Buck Bean,

PLATE XLVI.

A he Buck bean or Marsh Trefoil is one of
those plants which are native in Europe and
North America, with so little difference of struc-
ture, in the two continents, that their specific
identity can hardly be doubted. I have com-
pared specimens of the native, and foreign plant,
without being able to perceive the least definable
difference, except in size ; the American being
smaller. Yet, if we admit the statements of
botanical writers, the plant flowers in England at
least a month later than it does in the neigh-
bourhood of Boston, a circumstance not usual in
other species of vegetables.

The most spongy and boggy soils, which are
inundated at certain seasons, and never wholly
destitute of water, are the favorite situations of the
Menyanthes trifoliata. It often constitutes large

56 MENYANTHES TRIFOLIATA.

beds at the margin of ponds and brooks. It is
common in IVew England, and grows, according
to Pursh, as Far south as Virginia.

The genus Menyanthes has its corolla hairy
on the upper side; stigma bifid; capsule one
celled, two valved. The species in the present
article is named from its ternate leaves. Class
Pentandria. Order Monogynia. Natural orders
Botacecv, Lin. Gentiance, Juss.

The root of this plant penetrates horizontally
in the bog-earth to a great distance. It is regu-
larly intersected with joints at the distance of
about half an inch from each other, these joints
being formed by the breaking off of the old pe-
tioles and their sheaths. The leaves proceed from
the end of the root on long stalks furnished with
broad sheathing stipules at base. They are tri-
foliate, nearly oval, glabrous, somewhat fleshy,
and slightly repand, or furnished with many
irregularities at the edge, which hardly prevent
them from being entire. The scape is round,
ascending and smooth, bearing a conical raceme
of flowers. Peduncles straight, scattered, sup-
ported by ovate concave bractes. Calyx erect,
subcampanulate, five parted, persistent. Corolla
funnel shaped, the tube short, the border five
cleft, spreading and at length revolute, clothed on

BUCK BEAN. 57

the upper part with a coating of dense, fleshy,
ohtuse fibres. The colour, in the American va-
riety, is generally white, with a tinge of red, par-
ticularly on the outside. Stamens five, shorter
than the corolla, and alternate with its segments ;
the anthers oblong-arrow shaped. Germ ovate ;
style cylindrical, persistent, as long as the corolla ;
stigma bifid, compressed. Capsule ovate, two
valved, one celled. Seeds numerous, minute,
attached to two lateral receptacles.

In New England this plant flowers about the
middle of May.

The whole plant and particularly the root has
an intensely bitter taste, hardly exceeded by that
of Gentian and Columbo. This bitterness resides
chiefly in an extractive matter, soluble in water
and spirit. The root is, however, resinous and
impregnates alcohol more strongly than water,
and may be precipitated from its tincture, in part,
by the latter fluid.

The root of this vegetable is undoubtedly
entitled to a high place in the list of tonics. In
Europe it has long been admitted to a place in
the Materia Medica, and has received the com-
mendations of various physicians. When given
in small closes, about ten grains, it imparts vigour
to the stomach and strengthens digestion. Its
8

58 MENYANTHES TRIFOLTATA.

tincture, moderately used, has the same effect
Large doses, such as a drachm of the powdered
root, or two or three gills of the saturated decoc-
tion, produce vomiting and purging, and fre-
quently powerful diaphoresis. In this respect it
agrees with many vegetable bitters, and perhaps
resembles most nearly the Eupatorium perfolia-
tum. Its bulk, however, and unpleasant taste
render it inconvenient to be used as an evacuant.
We are told by authors that the Buck bean
has been employed with benefit in intermittent
and remittent fevers. Boerhaave, in his own case
of gout, was relieved by drinking the juice of the
plant mixed with whey. Other physicians have
found it useful in keeping off the paroxysms of
that complaint. Dr. Cullen informs us, that he
has " had several instances of its good effects in
some cutaneous diseases of the herpetic or seem-
ingly cancerous kind. It was taken by infusion
in the manner of tea." Others have commended
this vegetable in rheumatism, dropsy, scurvy and
worms. Its reputation in the North of Europe,
particularly in Germany, was at one time so high,
that it was consumed in large quantities, and
deemed a sort of panacea. Its true character,
however, is simply that of a powerful bitter tonic,
like Gentian and Centaury, to which it is closely

BUCK BEAN. 59

related in its botanical habit, as well as sensible
properties.

We may regard this plant as one of the
numerous vegetable bitters abounding in our
country, which are fully equal in strength to
imported articles of their class, and which may
hereafter lessen our dependance on foreign
drugs.

Linnaeus, in his Flora Lapponica, informs us,
that in times of scarcity, sheep will subsist upon
this plant, notwithstanding its bitterness. The
Laplanders employ it as a substitute for hops to
prevent acescency in their beer. They even
introduce it in some instances into their bread,
upon which Linnseus bestows the epithet, " ama-
rus et detestabilis."

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Menyanthes trifoliata, Linn. Sp. pi. — OEder. Flora Dan. t. 541.
— Curtis, Flor. Lond, 4. t. 17. — Woodville, Med. Bot. t. 2. —
Smith, Engl. Bot. t. 495. — MicHAUx,FZora.i. »25. — Pursh, i. 139. — »
Menyanthes palustre triphyllum, Ray. Syn. 285. — Trifoliura palu-
dosum, Gerard, em. 1194.

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

Murray, apparatus med. ii. 33. — Linnaeus, Fl. Lap. 50. — Hal-
ler, Hist. Stirp. Helv. 633. — Cullen, Mat. Med. ii. 53. — Thomson,
Lond. Disp. 2.5Q.

60 MENYANTIIES TRIFOLIATA.

PLATE XL VI.

Fig. 1. Menyanthes trifoliate

Fig. 2. Calyx.

Fig. 3. Petal.

Fig. 4. Stamen.

Fig. 5. Style.

Fig- 6. FrMifc

V/ //// Y/YYY

RANUNCULUS BULBOSUS.

Bulbous Crowfoot.

PLATE XL VII.

It is a remarkable fact that a great portion
of the weeds, which are most troublesome in the
United States, are of European origin, having
introduced themselves since the discovery of this
country. Some of these emigrants have settled
in our grazing and mowing lands, such as the
Ranunculus bulbosus, acris and repens, indis-
criminately called Buttercups, Crowfoot, and
Yellow weed; the Chrysanthemum leucanthe-
mum, or White weed; the Rumex acetosella, or
Sorrel ; the Hypericum perforatum, or St. John's
wort, fyc. In our cornfields and gardens are
quartered the Couch grass, Triticum repens ; the
different species of Goosefoot or Pig weed, Che-
nopodium ; the Bock, Rumex crispus, £>c. ; the
Charlock or Wild Badish, Raphanus Raphanis-
trum ; Burdock, Arctium lappa, 5jc. Some have

62 RANUNCULUS BULBOSUS.

commenced their inroads within a few years, snch
as the Cnicus arvensis, improperly called Canada
thistle ; the Genista tinctoria or Dyer's weed, fyc.
— In return for these introductions, we have sent
them the Erigeron Canadense, and the prolific
families of Ambrosia and Amaranthus.

"No race of plants is more familiarly known
than the Ranunculi. Of numerous species, both
native and imported, which we possess ; several
resemble each other so nearly, as to pass with
common observers for the same plant. The
great similarity of their properties renders it
almost unnecessary in a medical or economical
point of view to distinguish them. I have selected
the bulbous-rooted species, not because it is more
active in its properties than many others, but
because it is one of the most common and best
known.

The genus belongs to the class Polyandria^
and order Folygynia. It is found in the natural
orders Multisiliquoe, Linn, and Rannnculacece,
Juss. Its generic character is formed by a five
leaved calyx? ; five petals, with a melliferous pore
at the base of each ; the seeds naked. "No genus
can be more strictly natural than this. A general
resemblance pervades the whole of the species,
which indicates their consanguinity at sight.

BULBOUS CROWFOOT. 63

The nectary, the never failing concomitant of this
genus, is a small cavity at the inside of the claw
of each petal, generally covered by a flat scale,
sometimes surrounded with a concave brim, and
at others inclosed in a short cylinder. A subtle
and violent acrimony, on which the medical
properties seem to depend, is found in most, if
not in all, of the species.

The species bulbosus has compound leaves,
an erect many flowered stem, a furrowed peduncle,
reflexed calyx, and bulbous root It grows gen-
erally in dry pastures, mowing lands and road sides,
flowering abundantly in May and the first part of
June, after which it gives place to its equally
abundant successors, B. acris and repens, which,
however, generally prefer a more moist soil.
These three species, having flowers of similar
size and appearance, are indiscriminately known
by the name of Buttercups. Their distinction
affords a pleasing instance of different combina-
tions of features, forming separate characters for
similar plants. The R. bulbosus has a furrowed
flower-stalk and reflexed calyx; R. repens a
furrowed flower-stalk and spreading calyx, and
R. acris a round flower-stalk and spreading
calyx.

1)4* RANUNCULUS BULBOSUS.

A more particular description of the plant in
our figure is as follows. Root fleshy, solid,
roundish, depressed, sending out radicles from
its under side. In autumn it gives off lateral
bulbs near its top, which afford plants for the
next year, while the old root decays. Steins
several, erect, round, hairy, branching. Root
leaves on long petioles, tern ate, sometimes
quinate ; the segments variously cut, lobed and
toothed ; hairy. Stem leaves sessile, ternate, the
upper ones more simple. Flowers several un a
stem, solitary, of a bright glossy yellow. Pedun-
cles furrowed, angular, hairy. Calyx leaves
oblong, hairy, bent back against the peduncle.
Petals five, inversely heart shaped ; the nectary
at the claw covered with a small wedge-shaped
emarginate scale. Stamens numerous, yellow,
with oblong erect anthers. Germs numerous
with reflexed stigmas. Fruit a spherical head
composed of acute, naked, diverging seeds with
recurved points.

The roots of Ranunculus bulbosus appear to
consist principally of albumen intermixed with
ligneous fibres. If the root be macerated in cold
water, it gives a solution of this substance, which
coagulates in flocks on the application of heat ;
and undergoes the same process slowly on the

BULBOUS CROWFOOT. b'5

admixture of alcohol. But the most interesting

o

constituent in this, and in most other species, is
the acrid principle which pervades every part of
the plant in its green state. Like the acrimony
of the Arum, it is volatile, and disappears in dry-
ing, or upon the application of heat. It differs,
however, in not being destroyed by a moderate
heat, and in being folly preserved in distillation.
I have subjected various species of Ranunculus
to this experiment, and always found the distilled
water to possess a strong acrimony ; while the
decoction and portions of the plant remaining in
the retort were wholly destitute of this property.
JThis distilled water, when first taken into the
mouth, excited no particular effect ; but after
a few seconds a sharp, stinging sensation was
always produced. When swallowed, a great
sense of heat took place in the stomach. I pre-
served some of the water distilled from leaves of
Ranunculus repens, for several months in a close
stopped phial ; during which time it retained its
acrimony undiminished. In winter time it froze,
and on thawing had lost this property. Tilebein,
as quoted by Dr. Polteney, in some experiments
on this genus of plants, found that water distilled
from R. scelcratus, on cooling, deposited small
crystals, which were hardly soluble in any men-

(36 RANUNCULUS BULBOSUS.

struum, and were of an inflammable nature. 1
have not met with an appearance of this kind.
The distilled water, however, had a substance
dissolved in sufficient quantity to yield a gradual
precipitate with some reagents, such as muriate
of tin and acetate of lead. The strength of the
distilled water is impaired by continuing the
operation too long. The acrimony of the plant
is expended in a very short time at the boiling
heat, and a farther continuance of the distillation
brings over only water.

Since the time of Dioscorides [Note A.] the
acrid and stimulating properties of the Ranunculi
have been well known. This acrimony resides
in all the species, with the exception of R. auri-
comus, which is said to be mild, and perhaps two
or three others. It is so powerful that it speed-
ily inflames or corrodes the lips and tongue, if
kept in contact with them. In the nostrils it
acts as a violent sternutatory, and if swallowed in
considerable quantity, it brings on great pain,
heat and inflammation of the stomach, and has
even occasioned convulsions and death.

Before the introduction of Cantharides as a
vesicatory, different species of Ranunculus were
used upon the skin, as external stimulants.
Their power of occasioning erosion and ulceration

BULBOUS CROWFOOT. 67

appears to have been known to the ancients.
Different medical writers have given accounts of
their mode of operation ; but the most extensive
history and investigation is that of Krapf, pub-
lished at Vienna, in 1766. This work, which I
have not seen, is quoted in all its principal facts
by Professor Murray of Gottingen in the Appara-
tus medicaminum. According* to this author the
various species, with which his experiments were
made, proved capable of exciting inflammation,
blistering and ulceration, when applied to the
skin. A slice of the fresh root of R. bulbosus
placed in contact with the inside of the finger,
brought on a sense of burning in two minutes.
When taken off, the skin was found without red-
ness, and the sense of heat and itching ceased.
In two hours, however, it returned again, and in
ten hours a full serous blister was raised. This
was followed by an ulcer of bad character and
difficult to heal. He remarks that, if the appli-
cation is continued after the first itching, the
pain and subsequent erosion is much greater.
From the accounts given of this species, also
of R. sceleratus, R. acris, and some others, it
appears that the leaves, flowers, buds, or roots of
these plants, if bruised and applied to the skin,
excite redness and vesication, This effect is not

68 RANUNCULUS BULBOSUS.

constant, but fails to take place in certain con-
stitutions or at certain seasons of the year.
Generally, however, they are said to operate in
half an hour, or less, from the time of their appli-
cation. They are stated to possess the advantage
over blisters made by flies, that they never occa-
sion symptoms of strangury.

With a view to their external stimulus they
have been used advantageously in rheumatism,
the hip disease, hemicrania, and fixed pains of
various descriptions. Among the old practition-
ers, who have recorded instances of their effects,
are Baglivi, Storck, and Sennertius. A curious
practice, at one time, prevailed in several coun-
tries in Europe, of applying the Ranunculus to
the wrists or fingers, for the cure of intermittent
fever. This is mentioned by Yan Swieten, Tissot,
and some others. In hemicrania it was applied
to the head, and in this case it did not produce a
discharge, nor break the skin ; but occasioned
tumefaction of the hairy scalp.

An objection against the use of the Ranunculi,
as external stimulants, exists in the uncertainty of
their operation, and the violent effects which
sometimes have followed after they had been ap-
plied. Those writers, who have witnessed their
application, record instances in which these vege-

BULBOUS CROWFOOT. 09

table blisters have been followed by deep, ill-
conditioned and sloughing ulcers, which were not
healed without great difficulty. Tissot mentions
an instance, in which an application made to the
thumb caused a deep, painful ulcer, which pene-
trated to the bone, and occupied some months in
its cure. In another case the blister spread, in
a few hours, over the whole arm, occasioning
fever and delirium, and was followed by such a
tendency to gangrene, that the limb was with
difficulty saved. Chesnau, quoted by Murray,
advises that the Ranunculus should be applied
to a small surface only, and through a perforation
in an adhesive plaister, to prevent it from spread-
ing. From want of this caution, he had known
extensive inflammation to arise and spread over
a greater part of the face, neck, and breast. — .
Linnseus, in his Flora Suecica, relates that beg-
gars, in Sweden, were known to excite ulcerations
of their feet with the Ranunculus sceleratus, to
assist them in extorting charity from passengers.
I know not to what extent the efficacy of the
Ranunculi, externally applied, can be depended
on. Certain it is that they do not affect all
persons alike, and this fact is avowed by those
who have used them most. I have repeatedly
made applications of the contused roots and

70 RANUNCULUS BULBOSUS.

leaves of different species to my arm and hand,
and worn them for a dozen hours, without feeling
any particular sensation, or perceiving any visible
effect. The rapid drying up of the moisture of
the plant seemed to prevent it from acting upon
the skin. I am inclined to believe, there is
something in the action of these vegetables anal-
ogous to that of the poisonous species of Rhus
described in this work ; which some individuals,
but not all, are susceptible of. The extensive
and spreading inflammation, which they occa-
sionally produce, resembles more the effect of
these shrubs, than of any of the ordinary rube-
facients or vesicants.

The burning sensation which the Ranunculi
excite in the mouth when chewed, extends to
the stomach if they are swallowed. Krapf states
that a small portion of a leaf or flower of R.
sceleratus, or two drops of the juice, excited
acute pain in the stomach, and a sense of inflam-
mation in the throat. He gave a large quantity
of the juice to a dog, which brought on vomiting
and great distress ; and the animal being killed,
was found with the stomach inflamed and con-
tracted, and the pylorus hardly pervious. The
same author informs us that dilution greatly
diminishes the power of this fluid, so that half a

BULBOUS CROWFOOT. 71

drachm of the juice, in six ounces of water, may
be taken with entire safety.

Dr. Withering, as quoted by Dr. Pulteney in
the Linnsean transactions, asserts, that the dis-
tilled water of Ranunculus flammula is an emetic
more instantaneous and less offensive than sul-
phate of zinc. I know not in what publication of
Dr. W. this statement is made, but the fact
appears to me not improbable. Acrid substances,
such as mustard, pepper, and horse-radish, if
swallowed in large quantities, excite the stomach
to relieve itself by vomiting. An objection,
however, exists against the distilled water, owing
to the uncertainty of its strength ; which must
vary in proportion to the quantity of the plant
employed, the time occupied in distillation, and
the subsequent time for which the fluid is kept.

Krapf states that R. auricomus and R. lanugi-
nosa are so free from acrimony, that they are
eaten as greens or sallads. All the species lose
their pungency in boiling, so that even the R.
sceleratus, one of the most acrid, is used for the
same purpose.

Grazing cattle generally avoid the plants of
this genus, which grow among grass, as far as
it is possible for them to do it. Accordingly we
observe the flowers of Ranunculi left untouched.

?2 RANUNCULUS BULBOSUS.

while the grass is closely cropped around them.
It is nevertheless unavoidable, so common are
these plants, that portions of them should be
eaten very often by these animals. It is probable
that small quantities of the less acrid sorts do
them no injury. At least, it appears that their
stomachs are much less susceptible to this kind
of stimulus than ours. In the Pan Suecus some
experiments upon these plants, with domestic
animals, are detailed ; in which, it is stated that,
horned cattle refused to eat all the species when
offered to them, except R. auricomus. This
species was rejected by horses, while they would
eat R. flammula Sheep and goats eat the JR.
acris, one of the most pungent species. Dr.
Pulteney states, as a well known fact, that hogs,
in England, devour the roots of R. bulbosus.
How it is that these animals resist the deleterious
effects of so virulent plants, it is not easy to say.
It is, however, a not more remarkable fact, than
the power of some animals to devour Cantharides
and even mineral poisons with impunity.*

In their dry state, various species of Ranun-
culus enter into the composition of hay, particu-
larly R. acris. Having lost their acrimony
altogether in drying, they are harmless and
probably nutritive.

* See a note, vol. i. p. 164.

BULBOUS CROWFOOT. 73

Dr. Pulteney has published a memoir in the
Linnsean transactions on the economical use ot
some of the Ranunculi, particularly the R. fluvia-
tilis, which be considers a variety of R. aquatilis.
Contrary to the common effects of the other
species, this plant is said, by him, to be not only
innocent, but highly nutritive to cattle. He states
that, "in the neighbourhood of Ringwood, on the
borders of the Avon, which affords this vegetable
in great abundance all the year, some of the
cottagers sustain their cows, and even horses,
almost wholly upon this plant ; since the remain-
ing part of their food is nothing more than a
scanty pittance, they get on the adjacent heath,
which affords little more than Ling, Lichen, Bog-
moss or Sphagnum, £$c. It is usual to employ
a man to collect a quantity for the day every
morning, and bring it in the boat to the edge of
the water, from which the cows, in the instance
seen, stood eating it with great avidity. I was
indeed informed," says he, "they relished it so
highly, that it was unsafe to allow them more
than a certain quantity ; I think between twenty
five and thirty pounds daily, each ; but with
variation according to circumstances. The cows
I saw were apparently not in a mean condition,

and gave a sufficient quantity of good milk. I
10

74 RANUNCULUS BULBOSUS.

was told by the person whose cattle were feeding
on it, that he kept five cows and one horse so
entirely on this plant and what the heath afforded,
that they had not consumed half a ton of hay
throughout the whole year ; none being used
except when the river was frozen over. I exam-
ined the whole parcel on which four cows were
feeding, in the beginning March, and found the
whole consisted exclusively of the Ranunculus
fluviatilis without any mixture of the Potamoge-
ton, Carex, Sparganium, or other aquatic plants.
In summer, however, it can hardly be avoided
but that there must be a mixture of some of these,
but other plants are not chosen.

" This account was confirmed to me by differ-
ent persons ; by whom I was further informed
that hogs are also fed with the same plant, on
which they improve so well, that it is not neces-
sary to allow them other sustenance, till it is
proper to put them up to fatten."

In Veterinary practice the Ranunculus bul-
bosus has been employed as an external stimu-
lant. To this purpose Dr. Chapman, in his
Therapeutics, thinks it may be better adapted
than other topical excitants.

BULBOUS CROWFOOT. 75

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Ranunculus bulbosus, Linn. Sp. pi. — Curtis, Flora Lond. i. 38.
■*-Martyn, Flora rustica, t. 28. — Smith, Flora Britt. 591. — Engl.
Bot. t. 515. — Michaux, i. 521. — Pursh, ii. 393. — Ranunculus tube-
rosus magor, J. Bauhin, iii. 417. — Ranunculus pratensis, &c. —
(Eder, Fl. Dan. t. 515.

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

Murray, Apparatus, Med. iii. 88. — Krapf. Ranunculi. Vienna,
1 766. — Lewis, Mat. Med. ii. 262. — B. S. Barton, 23. — Pulteney,
Lin. transactions, v. 14. — Chapman, Therapeutics, ii. 411.

PLATE XLVII.

Fig. 1. Ranunculus bulbosus, the radical leaf of the largest size

and more subdivided than common.
Fig. 2. Radical leaf of smaller size and more common shape.
Fig. 3. Petal and nectary.
Fig. 4. Two stamens enlarged,
Fi?. 5. Fruit.

ILLICIUM FLORIDANUM,

Starry Jinise.

TLATE XL VIII.

Ihe same qualities which entitle the Lirio-
dendron and Magnolias to a place among medi-
cinal plants, exist abundantly in the kindred genus
of lllicium. This family consists of fine, spicy,
flowering shrubs, one of which, the I. anisatum,
growing in Eastern Asia, derives its name from
the similarity of its flavour to that of Anise, a
quality which exists, though less simple, in the
subject of the present article. Another species,
the I. parviflorum, a shrub with small yellowish
flowers, first discovered by Michaux in the
mountains of Georgia and Carolina, has so
exactly the flavour of the Sassafras root, that they
are not to be distinguished by the taste. The I.
Floridanum forms beautiful thickets in the
country bordering on the north of the Gulf of

- S'/n/'ff/f/

STARRY ANISE. 77

Mexico, and is often mentioned by the traveller
Bartram, with his accustomed enthusiasm, as one
of the chief beauties of that exuberant region.
In the Northern states, as well as in Europe, it
is preserved by artificial heat. The drawing,
which illustrates our description, was made from
a greenhouse specimen.

The character assigned to this genus is
formed by a sice leaved calyx, twenty seven petals,
anil a number of capsules arranged in a circle, two
valved, one seeded. The species Floridanum has
its leaves acuminate and its petals numerous,
oblong and linear.

The class and order are Polyandria, Polygy-
ria; and the Natural orders Coadunatce, Linn.
Magnolias, Juss.

The lllicium Floridanum is a shrub, in some
instances entitled to be considered a small tree.
Its leaves are scattered, or grow in tufts, on short
petioles. They are evergreen, oval lanceolate,
slightly acuminate, entire, smooth on both sides,
and firm or fleshy. The flower buds proceed from
the sides of the branches at the axils of the last
year's leaves. The flowers grow on slender,
nodding peduncles, an inch or two long. When
fully expanded, they are about the size of a dollar,
and of a dark, purplish crimson. Calyx deci-

TS ILLICIUM FLORI&ANUM.

duous. Petals linear, obtuse, in three rows,
about nine in a row, the uppermost row ascend-
ing, the lowermost descending, and broader or
more spatulate. Stamens thirty or more, diverg-
ing, flat, depressed with the anthers recurved ;
pollen white. Germs a dozen or more, round-
ish-rhomboidal, compressed and arranged in a
circular manner; styles short, recurved, pubescent
on the inside. The fruit, which I have not seen,
is represented by authors, as has been stated in
the generic character.

The leaves and young shoots of this species
of Starry anise abound in a fine, clear mucilage,
which becomes immediately perceptible in the
mouth, if these parts are chewed, and which com-
municates to water in a short time a ropy con-
sistence. This mucilage is separated from the
decoction by alcohol in the form of dark brown,
tough, stringy coagula. Muriate of tin causes a
precipitate after these coagula are withdrawn,
which seems to indicate the presence of extract.
Sulphate of iron added to the decoction, coagu-
lated the mucus and darkened the colour. I
discovered no traces of resin in the portions
submitted to experiment, and a strong tincture
was not disturbed by water. The trial, however,
was conducted on a small scale.

STARRY ANISE. ?g

The bark and leaves of the Illicium Florida-
mim are strongly impregnated with a spicy,
aromatic taste and smell, approaching that of the
Magnolias and Liriodendron, but perhaps more
similar to that of some of the pungent seeds,
particularly Anise and Coriander, between which
they seem intermediate. This aroma is preserved
in the distilled water, and fills the room with its
fragrance, while distillation is going on. I was
not able in my limited experiments to separate
any volatile oil or camphor, on one of which
principles, as in similar cases, the aroma doubtless
depends.

An account of this species of Illicium is
given, with a figure, in the Philosophical trans-
actions for 1770, by John Ellis, Esq. He says,
"We are indebted for the discovery of this
curious American tree to a servant of William
Clifton, Esq. of West Florida, who was sent to
collect specimens of all the rarer plants by his
master ; and in April 1765, he met with it growing
in a swamp near Pensacola. After this, in the
latter end of January 1706, Mr. John Bartram,
the king's botanist for the Floridas, discovered it
on the banks of the river St. John, in East Florida,
as appears from- his description of it, and a draw-
ing of a seed-vessel with some of the leaves, sent

80 ILLICIUM FLORIDANUM.

to Mr. Collinson." Mr. Bartram's description of it
as it appears in his journal up the river fet. John,
published by Dr. Stork, in his account of East
Florida, is as follows. " Near here my son found
a lovely, sweet tree, with leaves like the sweet
bay, which smelled like Sassafras, and produces
a strange kind of seed-pop ; but all the seed was
shed. The severe frost had not hurt it ; — some
of them grow nearly twenty feet high, a charming
bright evergreen aromatic.''*

Of the medicinal properties of this shrub, I am
unable to speak with the certainty, which might
have attended an extensive number of trials, made
with the bark of full grown specimens. From
the evidence afforded by the bark and leaves of a
greenhouse specimen, and by the analogy of other
species, and similar trees, I should not feel much
hesitation in attributing to the Illicium tbe prop-
ertiesof a tonic-stimulant and diaphoretic. I have
at least satisfied myself that the bark of a twig,
and three or four of the leaves, produce no un-
pleasant consequence. Its bitter taste and aro-
matic quality point out its analogy to Cascarilla,
Canella, Sassafras, and other aromatic barks,
which are regularly consumed in the shops. Its

* It is very possible the above description may have been in-
tended for Illicium parviflorum.

STARRY ANISE. 81

co-specics, the lllicium anisatum of the East, is
used as a condiment to communicate an agreeable
flavour to certain dishes. The Chinese chew it
after dinner as a stomachic and a sweetener of
the breath. In some parts of the East Indies
the natives and Dutch mix it with their tea and
sherbet. It is also burnt as incense before their
idols by some of the oriental nations, and care-
fully kept as an antidote to various poisons.

The beauty of both these shrubs renders them
desirable acquisitions to collectors of plants.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

lllicium Floridanum, Linn, — Curtis, Bot. Mag, L 439. — Ml.
chaux, i. 526 — Pursh, ii. 330.

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

Ellis, in Philosophical transactions abridged, xiii, 87. t. 2. —
Sch<eff, 91.

PLATE XLYIII.

Fig. 1. lUieium Floridanum.
Fig. 2. Several stamens magnified.
Fig. 3. Pistils magnified.
Fig. 4. A pistil separate.
if

ARISTOLOCHIA SERPENTAKIA.

Virginia Snakeroot.

PLATE XLIX*

JLt is probable tbat this root, like many other
articles now used in medicine, was indebted to its
sensible qualities, for its first introduction into
use. As the name implies, its earliest medicinal
character was founded on a supposed antidotal
power against the bite of venomous serpents.
Cornutus, at the end of his book on the plants of
Canada, published at Paris in 1635, tells us, that
a root had been sent to him from " Notha Jhiglia"
which was called Serpentaria, and in the vernac-
ular tongue Snagrdel. This root was a very sure
safeguard against the bite of a huge serpent in
that country, which proved inevitably fatal within
twelve hours, unless a good portion of the antidote

* I am indebted to a gentleman in Georgia for the very natural
drawing of this plant.

^\

'/y.;/^/y//w . Jf /yt /;///■/ rssr

t

VIRGINIA SNAKEROOT. 83

was swallowed in season ; which being jlone, no
one was ever known to be in danger of his life
from this cause.

The snagroel has had a great many rivals in
the character of specifics against the bite of
serpents. So great, indeed, is the number of
articles which are called uniformly successful in
such cases, that we are compelled to believe, that
the bite of the rattle snake, and doubtless of
other venomous serpents in the country, although
attended with severe and alarming consequences,
is nevertheless but seldom fatal ; and hence
that the honor of proving specific in these cases
is one of cheap acquisition.

The Serpentaria' grows in woods in the South-
ern and Middle parts of the United States. It
bears cultivation in any part of the union, though
the most northerly situation, from which I have
received wild specimens, is the vicinity of New
Haven, from which place some living plants were
sent to me by Dr. Monson.

The genus Aristolochia has a monopetalous,
tubular, crooked corolla, swelling at base, and
dilated at the border. Capsule inferior, si& celled.
The species Serpentaria has its leaves heart-
shaped, oblong, acuminate ,• stem flexuous ; pe-
duncles radical. Pursh mentions a variety with

84< ARISTOLOCIIIA SERPENTARIA.

leaves so narrow, as to appear like a distinct
species ; the flower, however, being not different.
"Woodville's figure of our plant has the leaves
much too broad for the common habit of the
vegetable.

It belongs to the class Gynandria, order
Heamndria, or more properly Do dec andr in. It is
one of the few genera placed by Linnaeus in that
class which are not of the Orchideous tribe.
Natural orders Sarmenlaeece, Linn. Aristolochiw,
Juss.

This vegetable is humble in its growth, being
most commonly under a foot in height. The
root is extremely fibrous, and sends up a number
of stems. These are simple or slightly branched,
jointed, flexuous, and often of a reddish tinge.
The leaves are alternate, on short petioles, oblong,
entire, acuminate, heart-shaped at base and three
nerved.

The flowers grow close to the ground, like
those of Asarum. They have a stiff leathery
texture, and a dull brownish purple colour. The
peduncle which supports them has one or more
leafets, and gradually enlarges into a furrowed
obovate germ. The corolla, like others in this
singular genus, consists of a long contorted tube,
bent in the form of the letter S, swelling at its

VIRGINIA SNAKER0 0T. 85

two extremities, having its throat surrounded by
an elevated edge or brim, and its border expanded
into a broad irregular margin, forming an upper
and under lip, which are closed in a triangular
manner in the bud. The anthers are twelve in
number, growing in pairs to the sides of the
fleshy style, which is situated in the bottom of
the corolla, and covered by a firm, spreading
convoluted stigma, which extends over the an-
thers. The capsule is obovate, six angled, six
celled, with numerous small flat seeds.

Snakeroot has a penetrating, rather agreea-
ble, resinous smell, and a pungent bitter taste,
resembling somewhat that of the Pinus Canaden-
sis, or Hemlock spruce. It communicates its
qualities both to spirit and water, but most to the
former. 1 subjected a quantity of the root to
distillation for one hour, and obtained in the re-
ceiver a whitish pearly fluid, very strongly im-
pregnated with the aroma, but less bitter than
the root. On standing twenty four hours, this
fluid deposited round the edges of the surface a
considerable number of small white crystals,
which proved to be pure camphor. They were
inflammable, fusible with a sudden, and volatile
with a gradual heat. I perceived no essential
oil, though Dr. Lewis informs us, that if the

86 ARISTOLOCHIA SERPENTARIA.

quantity of root, submitted to the operation, be
large, there arises a small portion of pale coloured
essential oil of a considerable smell but of no very
strong taste. There is probably a portion of
resin present, as I found that the root, after hav-
ing been boiled in water an hour, still impregnated
alcohol so as to cause a precipitate with water.
The bitterness communicated to the infusion and
decoction appears to reside in a variety of extrac-
tive matter.

Medicinally considered, Serpentaria is a tonic,
diaphoretic, and in certain cases an antispasmodic
and anodyne. It has been abundantly used in
fevers of various descriptions, and has been com-
mended by a host of medical writers. There is
no doubt that it has been injudiciously employed
in many cases, in fever attended with an active
pulse and inflammatory diathesis. The early
stages, also, of febrile diseases rarely admit the
exhibition of so decided a stimulant, without
injury. But in the advanced stages of fever and
those attended with typhoidal symptoms, this
medicine is resorted to with great advantage, both
alone and in combinaton with other tonics and
stimulants. It is peculiarly useful in supporting
the strength, and in allaying the irregular actions
which attend great febrile debility, such as

VIRGINIA SNAKEROOT. 87

subsultus tendinum, delirium, watchfulness, ^c.
Its bitter ingredients, and the camphor which it
contains, no doubt contribute to these effects.
It is most advantageously given in combination
with bark, or with wine and opium.

Snakeroot is a popular remedy in exanthema-
tous disorders as a diaphoretic, being given to
keep out the eruption, and to restore it when it
has receded. In the latter case its use is doubt-
less injudicious, and if it fails to reproduce the
eruption, it greatly increases the heat, pain, and
restlessness of the patient. It is better in cases
where the eruption has receded to the disadvan-
tage of the patient, to attempt its restoration by
nauseating and saline diaphoretics, and even by
a full emetic, than to incur the risk of aggravating
the symptoms by a stimulating regimen.

Dr. Chapman, in his Therapeutics, considers
the Serpentaria as partaking the mixed qualities
of a stimulant and tonic, and acting also as a
diaphoretic and diuretic. It is peculiarly useful
as an auxiliary to the bark. He states, that one
of the more early uses of the medicine was in the
cure of intermittent fever. Whether alone it was
found adequate to this purpose, does not clearly
appear. "It was used by Sydenham in con-
junction with wine, to prevent the recurrence of

88 ARISTOLOCHIA SERPENTARIA.

the paroxysm, and from his account, not without
advantage. As a general rule, he says, that in
all cases, where it is expedient to combine wine
with bark, the effect will be much increased by
adding Serpentaria. The correctness of this
observation has been fully confirmed by subse-
quent experience, and it is now very much the
practice to unite the two articles in the low states
of disease."

Dr. Chapman farther states, that though it is
doubtful whether the Serpentaria, by itself, will
cure ague and fever, it is certainly a powerful
assistant to bark, not only in increasing its effi-
cacy, but, what is of great consequence, in
enabling the stomach to retain the medicine.

To remittent fever he thinks this medicine
better adapted. It has here, in many cases, an
indisputable superiority over bark, inasmuch as
it is rarely offensive to the stomach, and may be
given without injury, in those obscure states of
the disease, where the remission is not readily
tliscernible. He prefers, in these cases, a com-
bination of bark, snakeroot, and soda.

Snakeroot, he informs us, is much resorted to
as a popular remedy in the management of the
secondary stages of pleurisy. After bleeding, it
is the ordinary practice, in many parts of our

VIRGINIA SNAKEROOT. 89

country, to resort to a strong infusion of this
article with a view of exciting perspiration. Ca-
tarrhs, rheumatisms, and other winter complaints,
incident to rustic life, are managed in the same
way. In that species of pleurisy which is properly
enough designated hy the epithet bilious, he has
repeatedly had occasion to recur to the Serpen-
taria, and always with more or less utility. This
bilious pleurisy he considers as having all the
characters of pneumonic inflammation, with the
addition of some of the symptoms incident to au-
tumnal fever, such as headach, great gastric dis-
tress, and almost always violent vomitings of bile.
It diners also from ordinary pleurisy in having less
activity of inflammation, and consequently in not
bearing the same extent of depletion. The sys-
tem, indeed, will often be very evidently depressed
by one or two bleedings. In this case the practice
which has been commonly pursued is, after the
removal of a comparatively small portion of blood,
and the thorough evacuation of the alimentary
canal ; to administer very freely draughts of the
infusion of the Serpentaria in order to excite
copious diaphoresis.

Dr. Chapman concludes his remarks on this
article, by stating, that it is admirably suited to

check vomitings, and to tranquillize the stomach,
13

90 ARISTOLOCHIA SERPENTARIA.

more particularly in bilious cases. It is given
for this purpose in decoction, in the small dose
of half an ounce or less at a time, and frequently
repeated.

The most common form of exhibiting snake-
root is in infusion, for which purpose half an
ounce may be steeped in a pint of boiling water
for two hours, in a covered vessel. Of this in-
fusion an ounce or two may be taken every three
or four hours. Decoction is a less proper mode
of preparing this plant, as it tends to dissipate
the volatile parts, a portion of which is detained
in a state of mixture by the infusion. Sometimes
the powder is given in doses of from ten to thirty
grains. A tincture of snakeroot is made by di-
gesting an ounce of the root in a pound or some-
what less of proof spirit. The compound tincture
of bark, commonly called Huxham's tincture,
contains Serpentaria as one of its ingredients.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Aristolochia serpentaria, Linn. Sp. pi. — Walter, Flor. Car,
223. — Woodville, ii. 291. t. 106. — Michaux, ii. 162. — Pursh, ii.
596. — Pistolochia sive Serpentaria Virginiana, &c. — Plukenet, t.
148./. 5.— Catesby, Car. i. 29.

VIRGINIA SNAKEROOT. 91

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

Murray, Jlpp. Med. i. 348. — Cullen, Mat. Med. ii. 85. — Chap-
man, Therapeutics, ii. 411. — Lind. Hot climates, 104, 254.

PLATE XLIX.

Fig. 1. Jlristolochia serpentaria with the flower beginning to

expand.
Fig. 2. Side view of the flower expanded.
Fig. 3. Front of ditto.
Fig. 4. Longitudinal section of the flower.
Fig. 5. Style, anthers, and stigma magnified.
Fig. 6. Fruit.

ALETRIS FARINOSA.

Star Grass.

PLATE L.

JL know of no plant which surpasses the
Alteris farinosa in genuine, intense and perma-
nent bitterness. Neither aloes, gentian, nor
quassia exceed it in the impression produced on
the tongue. It has, on account of this property,
attracted the observation of some medical men,
and may hereafter become an article of more
consequence in the Materia Medica. Although
the number of trials, hitherto made, are perhaps
not sufficient to fix with precision its exact char-
acter, yet in a collection of American medicinal
vegetables it ought not to pass unnoticed.

This plant grows in most parts of the United
States in fields and about the edges of woods, and
flowers in June and July. I have found it near
Boston on the south, but never to the north of it.

^^^

//,'■/>,:,

'ft r///f>./f/

STAR GRASS. 93

Its mode of growth is not without beauty, the
leaves spreading- close to the ground in a radiated
manner, like a star ; while the spike is supported
by an almost naked stalk, at a distance above
them. The names Star Grass and Blazing star
are generally given to it in the country, from the
peculiar appearance of its leaves.

The genus Aletris has its corolla tubular, six
cleft, wrinkled, persistent ; stamens inserted into
the base of the segments ; style triangular, separa-
ble into three ; capsule opening at top, three celled,
many seeded. The species farinosa, called alba
by Michaux and Pursh, has its flowers pedicelled,
oblong-tubular, somewhat wrinkled in fruit ; the
leaves broad lanceolate. Michaux observes that
of the species referred by Linnseus to this genus,
the A. farinosa is the only one which strictly
belongs to it. Class TLexandria ; order Monogy-
nia; natural orders Liliacecz, Linn. Asphodeli,
Juss.

This plant has a single circle of radical leaves,
which are sessile, nerved, lanceolate, and smooth.
The stem or scape is from one to three feet high,
invested with remote scales, which sometimes
expand into small leaves. The flowers form a
slender, scattered spike with very short pedicels
and minute bractcs. Calyx none. Corolla white,

JJ4< ALETHIS FARING SA.

of an oblong bell-shape, divided at the mouth into
six acute, spreading segments. The outside,
particularly as the flower grows old, has a rough-
ish, wrinkled or mealy appearance, by which the
specific name was suggested. The stamens are
short, inserted near the mouth of the corolla at
the base of the segments. The circumstance
of their being opposite to the segments, and not
alternate with them, affords the most distinguish-
ing mark of this genus. The anthers are some-
what heart-shaped. Germ pyramidal, half infe-
rior, tapering : style triangular, separable into
three. Capsule invested with the permanent
corolla, triangular, three celled, three valved at
top. Seeds numerous, minute, fixed to a central
receptacle.

The Metris aurea, of Michaux and Pursh,
closely resembles this species, and it is difficult,
by comparing specimens of the two, to point out
any permanent distinctive marks. The leaves of
A. aurea are somewhat narrower and the flowers
bright yellow. Walter places it under A. farinosa
as a variety, and adds that he could not detect a
specific difference ; although the time of flowering
and place of growth indicate that they are dis-
tinct. In sensible properties they are similar.

STAR GRASS. 95

In the London Philosophical transactions for
1730, a plant is mentioned by Clayton, which,
though not described in botanical language,
leaves little doubt that the Aletris farinosa is
intended. He says, " there is another root of the
species of hyacinths ; the leaves are grass-like,
but smooth and stiff, of a willow-green colour,
and spread like a star on the ground. From the
middle shoots a tall, long, rush-like stem, without
leaves, near two feet high ; on one side grow
little white bell-flowers one above another. The
root is black outwardly, but brown within. It is
bitter and probably has the same virtues as Little
Centaury. Some call it ague grass, others ague
root, others star grass."

The root of the Aletris is highly resinous,
and appears to contain a portion of extractive
matter. The tincture, made by digesting the
root in alcohol, is intensely bitter, and assumes a
milky turbidness if water be added to it. The
decoction is moderately bitter, and is not dis-
turbed by alcohol. With chalybeate solutions it
undergoes little change. The tincture is to be
considered a stronger preparation than the de-
coction, although the latter has a good share of
the virtues of the plant.

96 ALETRIS FAR1N0SA.

The bitterness of this vegetable has brought
it into notice in the quality of a tonic and
stomachic. I have been informed of its use for
this purpose by physicians in different parts of
the country. The most common mode of its
employment, I understand, is by infusion or
decoction. Pursh speaks of it as a remedy in the
colic, but on what principle it can operate in
relieving that disease, I am at a loss to say. — The
amount of bitter resin, which the plant contains,
led me to suspect that it might possess some of
the properties of aloes, to which the plant is
botanically related ; but on trial, made in several
instances with the root in powder, a dose of ten
or twelve grains produced no effect of this kind
whatever. A physician, who experimented with
larger quantities, with a view to test this quality,
informed me that a dose of twenty grains occa-
sioned much nausea and tendency to vomit,
followed by some dizziness ; but that no cathartic
operation took place.

Dr. Cutler, in his account of the plants of
New England, informs us, that this plant has
been considered useful in chronic rheumatism ;
but does not mention the dose or preparation.

As far as we can sum up the testimony hith-
erto offered respecting the general properties of

STAR GRASS. 97

this plant, it appears that the infusion or decoction
acts as a tonic in small doses. Indeed the exhi-
bition of large ones would be inconvenient from
the extreme bitterness of the plant. Tbe powder,
in small quantities, produces no immediate visible
effect, except that it has appeared to invigorate
the appetite. In large doses it disturbs the
stomach, and possibly exerts some narcotic effect
on the system. It remains to be determined
whether these consequences are attributable to the
resin, which the infusion does not dissolve ; or
whether the largeness of the dose is alone instru-
mental. It is well known that the stomach does
not tolerate even gentian or any common bitter
in large dose. And it seems probable that if
the Aletris should ever increase in reputation as
a tonic bitter, it will only be by its use in limited
quantities.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Aletris farinosa, Linx.— Willd. Sp. pi. ii. 183. —Bot. Mag. t.
1418.— Aletris alba, Michaux, Flora, i. 189. — Puush, i. 225. —
Hyacinthus floridanus spicatus, Plukexet, amalth. 119, t. 437, /. 2.
— Hyacynthus ca\ile nudo, &c. — Groxoy. Virg. 38,
13

ALETRIS FARINOSA,

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

Clayton, Phil. Trans, abr. viii. 333. — Cutler, American Acadi
vol. i. 435.

PLATE L.

Fig. 1. Metris farinosa.

Fig. 2. Corolla opened to shew the insertion of the stamens.

Fig. 4. Fistil magnijkd.

AMERICAN

MEDICAL BOTANY.

VOL. III. PART. II.

Vs //c(/<(/f ;/f/i/>// ///s/.m.

AMERICAN

MEDICAL BOTANY.

RHODODENDRON MAXIMUM.

American Rose bay.

PLATE LI.

The scenery of the American forest is dis-
tinguished not less by the greatness of its natural
features, the imposing and picturesque appearance
of its mountains, its rocky precipices, its broad
streams and lakes ; than it is by the magnificent
clothing of wild shrubs and trees, the uncommon
beauty of which, gives to rough and inaccessible
spots a richness, that cultivation can hardly imi-
tate. The Kalmia, described in our first volume,
and the Rhododendron of the present article,
which are reared with care and difficulty as
ornaments of European gardens and pleasure
grounds, can be seen in perfection no where but
in the uncultivated recesses of our own continent.

10a RHODODENDRON MAXIMUM.

Near the summits of mountains, on the banks oi"
torrents and deep ravines, from which rivers take
their rise, where the deep shade, moist soil and
dashing water, preserve the atmosphere in a state
of perpetual humidity ; these shrubs, in luxuriant
size and vigour, are seen to cover tracts of great
extent, at one season presenting an unbroken
landscape of gorgeous flowers, and at another
with their evergreen foliage forming an impene-
trable shelter for the wild animals of the forest.
Of the Rhododendron maximum, Mr. Pursh
has designated three varieties. These are,
1. The Red, which inhabits swamps and the
borders of mountain lakes from Canada to Caro-
lina ; 2. The White, found in the swamps of New
Jersey and Delaware ; 3. The Purple, on the
highest mountains of Virginia and Carolina.
This last variety is represented as peculiarly
magnificent, growing to the size of a small tree,
having its trunk eighteen inches and more in
diameter, and its foliage triple the size of any
other species.

The first variety of this elegant shrub grows
abundantly on the banks of Charles river, a dozen
or fifteen miles from Boston. It even supports
the winter as far north as the state of Maine, and
was observed, by Dr. Eaton, growing plentifully

AMERICAN ROSE BAY. 103

on the borders of Sebago lake near Portland.
It does not bear transplantation well, but is apt
to dwindle after the first or second year. It
succeeds best when removed to a damp springy
soil, and to a situation calculated to afford it
shelter from the sun.

The Rhododendron, of the Northern states,
is a large straggling shrub, very irregular in its
mode of growth. The bark is of a greyish colour,
very much cracked and broken. The leaves are
iu tufts at the ends of the branches. They are
evergreen, coriaceous, on round fleshy petioles,
oblong-oval, entire, revolute at the edges, and pale
underneath. Both leaves and petioles, when
young, are covered with a light woolly substance.
The flowers form a terminal cluster or thyrsus
immediately above the leaves, the stalks and
calyces of which are covered with a glutinous
pubescence. Previous to its expansion, the whole
bunch forms a large compound bud, resembling
a strobilus or cone, each individual flower-bud
being covered by a rhomboidal bracte, which
falls off when the flower expands. Calyx small,
of five unequal obtuse segments. Corolla mo-
nopetalous, funnel-shaped, with a short tube, the
border divided into five large, unequal segments,
which are white, shaded with lake, the upper and

10* RHODODENDRON MAXIMUM,

largest, having a collection of orange coloured
spots at its centre. Stamens declinate, unequal ;
the filaments white, thickened and hairy at base ;
anthers two celled, opening by two pores at
top ; pollen white. Germ ovate, hairy, glutinous ;
style declinate, equal to the longest stamens,
thickened upwards ; stigma a rough surface with
five points. Capsule ovate, obtusely angular,
five-celled. Seeds numerous, minute.

Considered in its chemical character, this
shrub is a resinous astringent. A decoction of
the leaves gives strong proofs of the presence of
tannin in large quantities. Both the bark and
leaves, digested in alcohol, produce a resinous
tincture, which is immediately rendered turbid
by water. The glutinous covering of the flower
stalks appears of a resinous nature. A decoction
of the leaves in water affords nothing which is not
soluble in alcohol, and did not alter by it in two
days' standing.

1 have been induced to examine the Rhodo-
dendron and to insert it in this work, on account
of the reputation it has possessed of being poison-
ous. The late Professor Barton, in his collec-
tions towards an American Materia Medica, has
given various intimations of this sort, the most
conclusive of which is his expression, " This is

AMERICAN ROSE BAY. Wd

certainly a poison."— The result of my own
attention to this shrub does not give reason for
attaching to it suspicions of possessing a very
deleterious nature. None of its external charac-
ters would lead to apprehensions of this sort,
particularly the taste, which is simply astringent
and herbaceous, and much like that of a common
oak leaf. I know not what quantity might prove
injurious, but under the conviction that the plant
was not particularly dangerous, I have swallowed
a green leaf of the middle size, so large that it
required some resolution to masticate so unpala-
table a morsel, but have found no ill effect what-
ever to result from it.

Medicinally considered, I think it must be
ranked among the astringents, a place which both
its sensible and chemical properties entitle it to
hold. If it have any narcotic powers, they will
probably be developed only by an extraordinary
dose, which few persons will be likely to put to
the test.

106 RHODODENDRON MAXIMUM.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Rhododendron maximum, Willd. Sp. pi. ii. 606. — Bot. Mag. t.
951.— Schmidt, Arb. t. 121.— Pursh, i. 297.— Michaux, N. A.
Sylva, t. 67.

MEDICAL REFERENCE.

B. S. Barton, Collections, i. 18.

PLATE LI.

Fig. 1. Jl branch of Rhododendron maximum in flower and in

bud.
Fig. 2. Calyx and style.
Fig. 3. Stamen.

^v/ZAv//^ . y//fYY/r//ss////,

EUPHORBIA IPECACUANHA.

Ipecacuanha spurge.

PLATE LIL

Jb rom the specific name given to this vege-
table we infer, that before the true origin of the
officinal ipecacuanha was known, this plant,
among others, was for a time considered the
source of that drug. The Pharmacopoeia Danica
was one of the works in which this reference was
made, and Linnaeus undoubtedly paid some
respect to the opinion in assigning the specific
name.

Nearly all the species of Euphorbia appear to
possess the power of acting with violence on the
stomach and alimentary canal. This power
particularly resides in a milky juice which they
exude on being wounded. Of the species which
have been most extensively submitted to experi-
ment are Euphorbia officinarum, esula, heliosco-
i5

108 EUPHORBIA IPECACUANHA.

pia, dulcis, peplus, exigua, Cyparissias, palustris,
and Characias. Professor Murray has collected
details respecting the operation of most of these,
from various medical authorities. It appears
that they all excite vomiting or purging, and in
large doses bring on violent burning pains of the
stomach and bowels, heat and thirst, followed by
great prostration of strength, cold sweats, and in
some instance, death. In small quantities, how-
ever, they have been used as medicines with
safety, although some of them are uncertain in
regard to their dose, and difficult to manage in
their operation. [JVofe B.]

The genus Euphorbia comprises a vast num-
ber of species, of different habit, size and mode
of growth. The flowers are frequently minute,
very complex, and difficult of examination. They
have a calyciform involucrum with four or five
segments like petals, and the same number of
interior segments like nectaries. Stamens twelve
or more. Filaments articulated. Fertile flower
solitary, stipitate, naked. Styles three, bifid.
Capsule three seeded. — The species Ipecacuanha
is procumbent, with opposite, obovate, oblong or
linear leaves ; peduncles axillary, one flowered,
elongated.

IPECACUANHA SPURGE. 10 IT

The genus was placed by Linnseus in the
class Dodecandria, order Trigynia. Michaux,
considering as separate male flowers, the bodies
of stamens which correspond, in number, to the
nectaries or lacinulse, has referred the genus to
Moncecia, Monadelphia. In this he has been
followed by various American botanists. — In
natural arrangements this genus is among the
Tricoccce of Linn, and Euphorbice of Juss.

The Euphorbia ipecacuanha is a low, tufted
plant, growing in sandy soils in the Middle and
Southern states. Michaux remarks, that the
plants are sometimes buried in the sand. It is
a polymorphous vegetable both in its shape and
colour, the leaves continually differing in their
outline, even in contiguous plants ; and the
colour varying from green to crimson.

The root is irregular and fleshy, very large
in proportion to the plant it bears, running deep
into the sand, sometimes, as Mr. Pursh informs
us, extending to the depth of six feet. The
stems, from one root, are numerous, erect or
procumbent, forming large bunches on the
surface of the ground. They are smooth, regu-
larly dichotomous, and jointed at the forks. The
leaves are inserted at the joints, opposite, sessile,
smooth, haying most frequently an oblong shape

110 EUPHORBIA IPECACUANHA.

though different plants possess every intermediate
variety in the form of the leaf, from circular to
linear. Their size and colour are likewise vari-
able. The flowers are solitary on long peduncles
from the forks of the stem. Calyx spreading,
divided into five obtuse segments. Inner seg-
ments or nectaries five, small, gibbous. Stamens
numerous, in five parcels, appearing, at different
times, two or three together, with double anthers.
The fertile flowers have a large, roundish, droop-
ing, pedicelled germ, crowned with six revolute
stjgmas. Capsule three celled.

The dried root of the Euphorbia ipecacuanha
is of a greyish colour outside, and white within.
It is light and brittle and has about the hardness
of cork. To the taste it is sweetish and not
particularly unpleasant.

I subjected some portions of the root to
chemical examination and obtained the following
results. — Sulphuric ether digested on the pow-
dered root dissolves a part of it ; and this ethereal
solution gives a precipitate, if alcohol is added to
it. — Alcohol alone takes up another portion of the
root, and assumes a pearly turbidness after water
is added. Both the ethereal and alcoholic solu-
tions, evaporated to dryness, leave a residuum
which is fusible and inflammable. The decoction

IPECACUANHA SPURGE. Ill

gives no precipitate with gelatin or sulphate of
iron. With alcohol it gave out a white precipi-
tate which rendered the solution turbid, and
subsided in flocks. The cold infusion exhibited
the same phenomena in a smaller degree. From
these appearances we may infer that the root
contains caoutchouc, resin, mucus and probably
fsecula.

The Euphorbia ipecacuanha has long been
known to possess the same property, which is so
frequent in its genus, of exciting the stomach
powerfully as an emetic. The appropriation of
its specific name seems even to imply that such
a property had been recognised in this species
in a more eminent degree, than in the rest. It
does not appear, however, that it has ever con-
tinued long in use, this being prevented, proba-
bly, by the suspicious character of the race of
plants to which it belongs. The late Dr. Barton
mentions this vegetable among his indigenous
emetics, but considers it too violent and uncer-
tain to he depended on as a safe medicine.

Within a few years the plant has been
attended to by some medical gentlemen in
Philadelphia, who report more favourably of its
powers and mode of operation ; and consider it
as a safe, certain and manageable emetic, applica-

11& EUPHORBIA IPECACUANHA.

ble to most of the cases in which medicines of
this kind are called for.

Being desirous to obtain personal knowledge
of the medicinal character of this vegetable, I
instituted trials with different parcels of the dried
root, some of which were gathered by myself, in
flower, near Philadelphia, and the rest sent me
by friends from Baltimore and Washington.
Portions of these roots were given to a variety of
patients in the Dispensary and Almshouse by
myself and by other physicians, who have obliged
me by communicating the results of their obser-
vations. These experiments have led to the
conclusion that the Euphorbia ipecacuanha in
doses of from ten to twenty grains is both an
emetic and cathartic ; that it is more active than
ipecacuanha in proportion to the number of grains
administered ; that in small doses it operates
with as much ease as most emetics, in a majority
of instances. If it fails, however, at first, it is not
so safely repeated as the other emetics in com-
mon use. Given in large doses it excites active
and long continued vomiting, attended with a sense
of heat, vertigo, indistinct vision, and prostration of
strength. I have not ventured upon any large
dose myself, but have been informed, that such
is the effect, by those who have given the root in

IPECACUANHA SPURGE. 113

doses of two scruples and upwards. The plant
appears to differ from the South American Ipe-
cacuanha in having the degree of its operation
proportionate to the quantity taken ; the process
of vomiting not heing checked by the powder
being thrown off of the stomach, as frequently
happens, when common Ipecac is given in large
doses.

At my request, Dr. James McKeen made this
plant and another species, E. corollata, the sub-
jects of an inaugural dissertation at Harvard
University, in 1820. As his observations have
been made with some care, and illustrate very
fairly the action of the medicine, I insert the
principal cases from his manuscript.

" Case I. The first experiment," he observes,
" made with this species of the Euphorbia was
upon a man of intemperate habits, about twenty
seven years of age, and who appeared to be a
candidate for Delirium Tremens. I gave him
ten grains. He told me that it always required
powerful doses of medicine to produce any effects
upon his stomach or bowels, but as I was then a
stranger to the powers of the Euphorbia ipecacu-
anha, it was thought prudent not to hazard a
large quantity until something had been ascer-
tained of its strength. When I called in the

114 EUPHORBIA IPECACUANHA.

morning after it was taken, I learned that the
medicine had produced a gentle purging, pre-
ceded by a considerable degree of nausea, but
that there had been no vomiting.

" Case II. The next fair opportunity which
occurred for experiment was in the case of a
female about thirty seven years of age. This
woman, for a considerable portion of her life, had
suffered from syphilis ; nothing remained now,
however, specifically of this kind, excepting the
marked effects of a constitution shattered by
disease. I gave her at first ten grains of the
Euphorbia ipecacuanha, and in twenty minutes,
no signs of vomiting occurring, I gave her eight
grains more, and kept adding to the quantity,
which she had taken, until it amounted in the
whole to forty grains. I remained by this patient
until vomiting commenced, which was precisely
thirty five minutes after the exhibition of the first
ten grains. As the influence of the mind, in
contemplating the effects of an emetic, will often
induce its more speedy operation, I diverted the
patient's attention as much as possible, that no
consequences might ensue, but such as were
produced by the specific action of the medicine.
As soon as I ascertained that this Euphorbia
ipecacuanha was likely to produce effectual

IPECACUANHA SPURGE. f 1 £

vomiting, I left the house. About thirty hours
afterwards I culled to see this patient, and with
much surprise found that the quantity I had
given her had continued to operate by emesis
and catharsis ever since. She was, however,
very little exhausted, and there was nothing* of
cramp either on the stomach or extremities which
so often distress those who are too severely
vomited. About this time there was a cessation
of vomiting without the assistance of remedies.
Two days afterwards this woman told me she had
not been as well as she then was for a number
of years. The powerful vomiting produced a
considerable degree of dizziness, but this went
off in the course of twenty four hours. I had
quite despaired of vomiting this patient with the
Euphorbia ipecacuanha. In no instance after-
wards was this medicine more than half as lon«r
in producing vomiting as it was in this case.

Case III. A girl of about eighteen years of
age, whose manner of living was similar to that
of the person mentioned in the preceding case,
applied to me for an emetic ; I gave her thirty
grains of the Euphorbia ipecacuanha, and told
her to take half of this quantity, and if it did not
operate in half an hour, she might take the re-
mainder. Contrary to my injunctions she took
10

llO EUPHORBIA IPECACUANHA.

the whole at a single draught. In fifteen minutes
her attendants told me she began to vomit, and
continued to throw up, at intervals, smartly for
live hours, and was purged seven or eight hours
more. For some time after this she complained
much of dizziness.

Case IV. As I had found, in the first trial,
that ten grains of the Euphorbia ipecacuanha
failed to produce vomiting, I tried the same
dose upon another subject, which was a woman
of about forty eight years of age, to determine if
so small a quantity would produce vomiting.
In about fifteen or twenty minutes after the
medicine was received into the stomach, it began
to operate. After she had vomited three times,
it commenced purging, and produced three or
four evacuations. This woman did not complain
of any dizziness, as those did in the two preced-
ing cases.

Case V. A woman about thirty «pe years of
age took fifteen grains of the Euphorbia ipecacu-
anha ; in seventeen minutes it began to operate,
and vomited the patient every few minutes, until
the operation amounted to five or six times, and
afterwards a moderate purging ensued. The
operation, in this case, was more satisfactory than
any preceding ones, as it effectually evacuated

IPECACUANHA SPURGE. 117

the stomach and bowels, without a too long con-
tinuance of the vomiting.

Case VI. A man of forty years of age was
seized with symptoms of fever. Four grains of
sulphate of copper and twelve of common ipecac
were given. This dose produced no emetic
operation, but occasioned violent purging. Forty
eight hours after, I gave him twenty grains of
Euphorbia ipecacuanha, in powder, which pro-
duced very effectual evacuations from the stomach,
vomiting him eight or nine times ; after which
he had one or two alvine discharges.

Case VII. In one instance, for experiment, I
gave four grains of this plant; but it neither
affected the stomach nor bowels, nor the feelings
of the patient, nor his pulse."

From what is now known respecting the
Euphorbia ipecacuanha, we arc justified in con-
sidering it an active emetic, and, if prudently
administered more safe than a majority of the
species of its genus. It wants, however, the
peculiar mildness of the officinal Ipecacuanha,
which, in cases of slow operation, permits the
dose to be accumulated by repetition, until its
due effect takes place, without danger of excessive
violence in the length and degree of evacuation,
and without an injurious impression on the

118 EUPHORBIA IPECACUANHA.

nervous system. This, indeed, appears to be the
common defect of the active North American
erne tirs hitherto examined. And until a more
extensive examination has brought to light new
substances of this class, or better defined the
modes of preparation and use of those already
known, we cannot wish that the South American
drug should be diminished in our markets, or
less familiar to our physicians.

BOTANIC AT, REFERENCES.

Euphorbia Ipecacuanha, Linn. Sp. pi. — Willd. ii. 900. — Mi-
chaux, Flora, ii. £12. — Pursh, ii. 606. — Botanical Magazine, t.
1494. — Euphorbia inermis, &c. — Gronovius, Virg. 74. — Tithymalus
fiVe minimo herbaceo ? — Clayton, Fhil. trans, abr. viii. 331.

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

Schoepf, Mat. Med. 74.— B. S. Barton, Coll. 26 W. P. C

Barton, Veg. Mat. Med. vol. i.

PLATE LII.

Fig. 1. Euphorbia Ipecacuanha.

Fig. 2, 3, 4, 5. Different forms and sizes of the leaf observed

in individuals of this species.
Fig. 6. Bed variety of the leaves.
Fig. 7. Calyx.

Fig. 8. Calyx opened, ivithfive of the stamens expanded.
Fig. 9. vl perfect flower.
Fig. 10. Styles and stigmas magnified.

ry

3£*

I ,-////<>'/>/ a re; fufs/^'

EUPHORBIA COKOLLATA.

Large flowering spurge.

PLATE LIIL

In point of stature and the shewy appear-
ance of its flowers, this species of Euphorbia
differs eminently from that described in the last
article. In the common features, however, of
the genus, such as its lactescence, its taste, and
its medicinal powers ; the consanguinity of the
two plants evidently appears. I am not aware
that this species has been much known for its
operative qualities, until within a very recent
period. The indians were, indeed, acquainted
with the medicinal properties of more than one
species of Euphorbia. They doubtless made use
of the E. ipecacuanha, and not impossibly of the
present species also. In Mr. Clayton's letter to
Dr. Grew, contained in the Transactions of the
Royal society for 1730, and which we have noticed

ISO EUPHORBIA COROLLATA.

in speaking of Aletris farinosa, the writer states,
that the Aborigines made use of " the roots of
Tythymal, of which there are two sorts, the one
flore minimo herbaceo, the other jlore albo. The
flower of this last," he says, " is small, but large
in comparison with the other. They are repentes,
and grow in old manured grounds. They chiefly
make use of the latter of these, and it is a most
excellent purge, though it sometimes vomits. It
is quick but moderate in its effect, and has this pe-
culiarity, that it opens the body, when other more
violent purgatives will not move it." We might
safely conclude that the white flowering species,
here noticed, is the Euphorbia corollata, were it
not for the term repentes applied to both plants.
It is not improbable that in this respect, the
writer might have been misinformed.

Pursh informs us that Euphorbia corollata
grows in dry fields from Canada to Carolina. I
have never met with it north of Pennsylvania.
The drawing which illustrates our description is
from a specimen cultivated in the Botanic garden
at Cambridge. It is a tall, erect plant, from
one to five feet in height, resembling, at a dis-
tance, some of the white flowering corymbiferw.
It begins to flower in June, but is not fully ex-
panded until July or August. Its specific

LARGE FLOWERING SPURGE. 121

character is as follows. Umbel Jive rayed, three
parted, dichotomous ; leaves and involucra oblong,
obtuse; segments of the calyx obovate, petaloid,
coloured. The shape of the leaves is subject to
variety, as is also their smoothness or hairiness.
This plant has a large branching root which
sends up a number of stems, frequently from two
to five feet in height. They are erect, round
und in most instances simple. The leaves are
scattered, sessile ; oblong, obovate or linear, a
little revolute at the margin, smooth in some
plants, very hairy in others. The stem divides
at top into a large five rayed umbel, supported by
an involucrum of as many leaves. Not unfre-
quently a small axillary branch or two arise from
the sides of the stem below the umbel. The
rays of the umbel are repeatedly trifid or dicho-
tomous, each fork being attended by two leafets
and a flower. The top of the stem or centre of
the umbel is turgid, and often bears a precocious
flower. The calyx is large, rotate, white, with
five obtuse petal-like segments, from which the
name of the species has been taken. The nec-
taries or inner segments are five, very small,
obtuse projections situated at the base of the
segments. Stamens a dozen or more emerging
two or three at a time, with double anthers.

122 EUPHORBIA COROLLATA.

Germ pedicelled. Capsule three celled. A
great portion of the plants are wholly stamini-
ferous.

The results of a short chemical examination
of this plant were very similar to those afforded by
E. ipecacuanha. The ethereal solution was made
turbed by alcohol, and the alcoholic by water.
The precipitate in the last instance seemed
denser and more abundant than it was in the
former species. The decoction deposited a
mucus or feculent substance, by means of alco-
hol, as in the other plant. The same sweetish
taste characterised the solutions of both veg-
etables.

It has been observed, by late experimenters
in vegetable chemistry, that most of the lactes-
cent or milky plants contain caoutchouc. That
they contain a substance of this nature, which is
dissolved by ether and not by alcohol, I am able
to attest from the examination of various lactes-
cent plants inserted in this work, and some
others.

The properties of Euphorbia corollata have
been lately brought into notice by W. Zollic-
koffer, M. D. of Baltimore, to whom I was first
indebted for my specimens of the root and living
plant ; and who has furnished me with a variety

LARGE FLOWERING SPURGE. 12a

of facts relating to its properties. Dr. Z. states
that this plant is quite common in some parts of
the state of Virginia. In some districts of Mary-
land, and more particularly in Anne Arundel
county, it grows in the greatest abundance, where
it is recognised by the common appellations of
Milkweed, Snake's milk, Ipecacuanha and Indian
Physic. It delights in a poor, dry, and sandy
soil. It is seldom or never found growing in
the woods, but in fields that are cultivated every
two or three years. The farmers have frequently
told him that it is very hurtful to small grain,
when it grows in great quantities, and the com-
mon means that are made use of, such as plough-
ing and harrowing, in order to kill bluegrass,
have the effect of increasing the quantity and
rapid growth of this plant. It is never eaten by
animals. The root is sometimes used as an
emetic by the country people ; and it is esteemed
in the cure of dropsy. The stalks, which arise
from the common trunk of the root, are some-
times as many as thirty, and from this down to
a single one. The largest roots, which he recol-
lects seeing, measured from an inch to two
inches and a half in circumference. He has
been in the habit of using the Euphorbia corol-
lata, for some time past in practice, as an emetic,
17

124* EUPHORBIA COROLLATA.

in the place of the Ipecacuanha of the shops ;
and thinks it in no respect inferior to this article.
Combined with opium and the Sulph. potassse
in the proportions of the Pulv. doveri, he has
found it to be a valuable diaphoretic. The con-
tused root, in its recent state, will excite inflam-
mation and vesication, when applied to any part
of the body ; which generally goes off in the course
of four or five days without being attended with
any inconvenience whatever. He was led to
give it a number of trials in this way from the
circumstance of his face becoming considerably
inflamed after having handled large quantities of
the root. As an expectorant, this plant, he says,
is deserving of the attention of practitioners.

Dr. Z. has furnished me with minutes of
seventeen cases, in which he administered the
powdered root of this plant in doses of from ten
to twenty grains. In all of these it operated by
vomiting, with the exception of two cases, where
it produced nausea, followed by catharsis. Hav-
ing tried a variety of preparations, he states, that
the extract may be given in doses of from five to
eight grains ; the wine prepared in the same way
as Vinum ipecacuanha?, in dose of an ounce or
an ounce and an half. Of the root in powder
from fifteen to twenty grains was found a proper

LARGE FLOWERING SPURGE. 135

emetic. He considers this medicine as having- a
peculiar advantage in possessing no unplesant
taste ; being only followed by a sense of heat in
a few minutes after it is taken. But this is by no
means lasting, nor does it produce any material
uneasiness.

In some experiments, to determine the solu-
ble portions of this root, Dr. Z. found that two
thousand one hundred and sixty grains of the
recent root afforded one hundred and two grains
of watery extract ; and a like quantity by diges-
tion in alcohol gave one hundred and twenty
three grains of alcoholic extract. He did not
observe any difference in the activity of these two
extracts.

Dr. McKeen, whose Dissertation on the
species of Euphorbia has been already cited in
the last article, has detailed the circumstances of
twelve eases, in which he administered the
Euphorbia corollata. His experiments differ
from those of Dr. Zollickoffer, in the quantity of
the root used, being always smaller. The doses,
which he gave, were from three to twelve grains
of the powder. In every instance the medicine
operated as a cathartic. In most of the cases
nausea was produced, but in three only, out of
the whole number, it was followed by vomitiag^

1S6 EUPHORBIA COROLLATA.

In one case a dose of three grains proved actively
cathartic in four hours. In another five grains
produced vomiting. In a third no effect was
experienced from twelve grains, except that of a
moderate laxative. In one instance twenty grains
were given, which produced vomiting three times,
followed by about twenty alvine evacuations.

I have placed portions of this plant in the
hands of several practitioners and medical stu-
dents, with a request to be informed of the effect,
when suitable opportunities for its exhibition had
occurred. In a majority of the instances I have
been told, that a cathartic operation had followed
its use ; and sometimes, though less frequently,
an emetic. It rarely has proved inactive.

The Euphorbia corollata must undoubtedly
be ranked among the more efficient medicines of
the evacuating class. Dr. McKeen concludes,
from his experiments, that it is a very certain
purgative, possessing, he thinks, about double
the strength of jalap. It exerts its cathartic
efficacy in doses of less than ten grains. If given
to the amount of fifteen or twenty grains, it is
very sure to prove emetic ; the proportion of its
failures, being not greater than occurs in the use
of other emetic medicines. The only inconven-
iences which have come to my knowledge, as

LARGE FLOWERING SPURGE. 127

attending it, are, that if given in small doses, for
a purgative, it is apt to produce nausea ; while in
the large doses suitable for an emetic, it some-
times has induced a degree of hypercatharsis.
But it must be observed, that many of the medi-
cines, in common use, may occasion similar
consequences in persons of peculiar habit and
irritable fibre. Future experiment will, no doubt,
determine whether the Euphorbia coroliata is
any more irregular and unmanageable than other
medicines of its kind, or whether it is entitled to
a permanent and useful place in the Materia
Medica.

Many, and perhaps all the species of Euphor-
bia are powerful external stimulants. Several
are used as a sort of caustic to destroy warts.
The gum, called Euphorbium, produced by the
Euphorbia officinarum, is a strong vesicatory
employed by farriers, and sometimes used to
adulterate the plaister of Cantharides. The
blistering power of E. coroliata has been stated
by Dr. Zollickoffer. This active genus of plants
deserves a thorough investigation with a view to
this particular property, to determine whether
they are safe and manageable vesications, or
virulent and uncertain.

128 EUPHORBIA COROLLATA.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Euphorbia corollata, Linn. — Willd. ii. 916. — Michaux, ii. 210.
— Pursh, ii. 607. — Tithymalus marianus, &c. — Plukenet, Mont.
182. *. 446. /. 2.

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

Clayton, Philosophical transactions abridged, viii. 331. — Zol-
lickoffer, Materia Medica. Baltimore, 1819.

PLATE LIII.

Fig. 1. Euphorbia corollata, the top of a plant rather below the

common size.
Fig. 2. Barren flower.
Fig. 3. Calyx not fully expanded.
Fig. 4. Stamen.
Fig. 5. Fertile flower.

' yo///f/fr/rr /■///•/

POLYGALA RUBELLA.

Bitter Polygala.

PLATE LIV.

A his plant is interesting from the curious
manner in which a part of the fruit is produced,
by a kind of imperfect flower growing close to,
and in some instances under, the surface of the
ground. It is not the only species of the Polygala
which has this peculiarity. I have often observed
little shoots at the root of P. paucifolia, one of the
most beautiful of the genus, bearing apterous
flowers and subterranean fruit, precisely like
those represented in our plate. The P. polygama
of "Walter and Pursh, if, indeed, it is a distinct
species, has the same remarkable mode of growth.
It is difficult to imagine what end is attained by
nature in this singular arrangement, by which a
part of the seeds are ripened in the sun, while
the rest, like the fruit of Arachis hypogsea, is

130 POLYGALA RUBELLA.

buried from the light. To the eye there is no
difference between seeds taken from the upper or
lower racemes of the plant. It would be worth
while to ascertain if the two will vegetate equally
well.

The genus is marked by a calyx of jive leaves,
two of which are wing-like and coloured. Capsule
obcordate, two celled and two valved. The spe-
cies rubella has its stems simple ; leaves linear-
oblong, mucronated ; flowers racemed, those of the
stem winged, those of the root apterous.

Class Diadelphia, order Octandria ; natural
orders Lomentacece, Linn. Pediculares, Juss.

The Polygala rubella, here described, is the
plant designated by that name in Muhlenberg's
catalogue, as I have formerly learnt from the
author himself. There is little doubt that Willde-
now's plant is the same described from an
imperfect specimen. It is found in dry, sandy,
or gravelly soils in many parts of the United
States, and flowers in June and July.

Root somewhat fusiform, perennial, branch-
ing. Stems numerous, ascending, smooth, angu-
lar, simple. Leaves scattered, smooth, the lower
ones obovate, smaller; the upper ones linear-
lanceolate, obtuse, mucronated, sessile. Flowers
purple, short-crested, in terminal racemes.

BITTER POLY GALA. 18*

Bractes small, ovate-lanceolate, caducous. "Wings
of the calyx rhomboid-oval, obtuse, with a slight
middle nerve. Corolla small, closed, of three
segments, the middle one largest and crested by
the division of its sides and extremity. Anthers
eight, forming a double row, the filaments coa-
lescing. Germ compressed, inversely heart-
shaped ; style deflexed ; stigma bearded inside,
with a prominence below it. Capsule inversely
heart-shaped, nearly smooth, margined, and in-
vested with the wings of the calyx. Seeds two,
obovate, hairy, with a transparent appendage or
strophiole on the inside. From the base of the
stems proceed a number of prostrate shoots
situated upon, and sometimes nearly under the
ground, bearing a row of incomplete fertile flowers.
These flowers are furnished with a calyx without
wings, a minute corolla and stamens, and a short
style. The germ and fruit precisely resemble
those of the more perfect flowers.

Like some of the European species which it
resembles in habit, this plant is a strong and
permanent bitter, imparting its sensible proper-
ties both to spirit and to water. 1 digested a
portion of the dried plant in ether, and added
alcohol to the solution. No change was visible

at the time of mixture, but on standing till the

18

432 POLYGALA RUBELLA.

ether had partly evaporated, the alcohol became
turbid. A tincture of the plant was not imme-
diately affected by adding water, but on standing
over night it became very turbid, and in a few
days deposited a large precipitate. The bitter-
ness, which is probably of the extractive kind, was
communicated to cold, as well as hot water ; and
to alcohol. The aqueous solutions appear strong
enough to represent the virtues of this vegetable.
The Polygala rubella, from its extreme bit-
terness, has attracted the notice of various
medical practitioners in the Northern states.
I have been assured by those who have tried its
efficacy, that the infusion administered in small
doses, proves a useful tonic and stimulant to the
digestive organs. In large doses it opens the
body and excites diaphoresis. Its powers appear
to resemble those of Polygala vulgaris and P.
amara of Europe, to which it has a close botanical
resemblance ; and which have enjoyed a certain
degree of medicinal reputation as tonics and
expectorants.

BITTER POLYGALA. 133

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Polygala rubella, Muhlenberg, Catal. — Willd. iii. 875.*—
Pursh, ii. 464. — Polygala polygama ? — Nuttall, genera, ii. 87.

PLATE LIV.

Fig. 1. Polygala rubella,

Fig. 2. A flower.

Fig. 3. Calyx.

Fig. 4. Corolla magnified*

Fig. 5. Fruit of ditto.

Fig. 6. Body of stamens.

Fig. 7. Pistil,

NYMPEUEA ODORATA.

Sweet scented Water lily.

PLATE LV.

J-HE common Water lily, of North America,
very much resembles that of Europe in its
external form, hut differs remarkably in the fine
fragrance of its flowers, those of the old continent
being nearly destitute of odour. It belongs to
a very beautiful tribe of aquatic plants, a great
part of which are natives of the torrid zone.
Those species which support the cold of our
northern latitudes, are enabled to do so only by
the depth of water, under which it is their habit
to vegetate. Nature has provided a sort of spon-
taneous hotbed for these plants, by placing their
roots at such a depth from the surface of the
element in which they grow, that the frost, which
would otherwise prove fatal, does not reach them
at the coldest season.

Vyzn/i/zs&z €H&ia£z

SWEET SCENTED WATER LILY. 135

The Nymphasa odorata, the finest of the
northern species, grows abundantly in most
parts of the United States, about the edges of
rivers and ponds, where the water is more than a
foot in depth. It is one of the largest of our
native flowers, and though it has often been
represented as inferior, in size, to the water lily
of Europe, I am sure that this comparison can
only have resulted from the inspection of culti-
vated specimens. The annexed drawing was
made from a full grown and fully expanded
specimen, and is actually smaller than the flower
from which it was taken.

Every angler is familiar with the leaves and
stems of this plant, which, with a few similar
aquatics, forms floating beds about the ed^es of
deep fresh waters, affording to the fish a favourite
shelter from the light ; and often rendering them
more essential service, by entangling the hooks
and lines of their pursuers.

The roots of this plant creep through the
muddy bottoms of ponds to a great extent. They
are very rough, knotted, blackish, and as large as
a man's arm. The porous stalks, which proceed
from these, are bouyed up by the quantity of air
they contain, and continue to be elongated till
they reach the surface of the water, which is

136 NYMPHiEA ODORATA.

often at the height of several feet. The upper
side of the leaves has a highly repellent power for
water, owing to its finely polished surface, from
which the fluid rolls off as from a coating of oil.
When the buds have attained to maturity, they
emerge and expand their flowers. This takes
place in the morning ; and when the sun is bright,
a bed of these flowers presents a truly magnifi-
cent spectacle. Owing to the concavity of the
calyx and petals they continue to float during a
great part of the day. They are seldom elevated
from the surface, except when the stem is un-
commonly large, or pushed upward by some
displacement of the adjacent leaves. At night,
or before, the flowers close, and either rest on
the surface or sink beneath it till the subsequent
day. When flowering is over, the germ sinks to
the bottom and there ripens its fruit.

The genus Nymphsea is now separated from
some other plants formerly attached to it by the
following character. Calyx four or jive leaved ;
petals many, inserted into the germ below the
stamens ; stigma radiated, sessile with a tubercle
in the middle ; berry many celled, many seeded.
This species very nearly resembles the JV*. Mba
of Europe, but appears distinct by the following
marks. Leaves orbicular-cordate, entire, the lobes

SWEET SCENTED WATER LILY. 137

acuminate, and veins prominent beneath; calyx
four-leaved, equal to the petals. — Linnaeus placed
this genus in his Miscellanece, and Jussieu with
the Hydro char ides.

The stalks, both of the leaves and flowers,
spring directly from the root. They vary in
length from one foot to five or six, according to
the depth of the water. The petioles are some-
what semicircular, the scapes round. Both are
perforated throughout by long tubes or air-vessels
which serve to float them. The leaves, which
swim on the surface, are nearly round with a
cleft or sinus extending to the centre, at which
the petiole is inserted in a peltate manner. The
lobes on each side of this sinus are prolonged
into an acute point. The upper surface is of a
bright glossy green almost without veins ; the
lower surface is reddish and marked by a multi-
tude of strong prominent veins diverging from
the centre. The calyx has four lanceolate leaves,
green without and white within. Petals nume-
rous, lanceolate, of a delicate whiteness, with
sometimes a tinge of lake on the outside. Sta-
mens numerous, yellow, in several rows ; the
filaments dilated, especially the outer ones, so as
to resemble petals ; the anthers in two longitu-
dinal cells grow ing to the filaments and opening

138 NYMPHiEA 0D0RATA.

inwardly. The stigma has from twelve to twenty
four rays, very much resembling abortive anthers,
at first incurved, afterwards spreading. At the
centre is a solid hemispherical protuberance,
usually called a nectary, but which appears to me
more like the true stigma.

The roots of this plant are among the strong-
est astringents, and we have scarcely any native
vegetable which affords more decided evidence
of this property. "When fresh, if chewed in the
mouth, they are extremely styptic and bitter.
Their decoction instantly strikes a jet black colour
with sulphate of iron, and yields a dense, white
precipitate to a solution of gelatin. "With alcohol
it deposites a slight flocculent substance resem-
bling fsecula. Tannin and gallic acid in large
quantities are to be considered its most character-
istic ingredients.

The flowers have a delicious odour, hardly
surpassed by any perfume which the summer
produces. This fragrance is perfect only when
the flowers are fresh, and, as they droop, becomes
contaminated with the common smell of aquatic
plants. It is peculiar in its character, and
resembles that of no other plant with which I am
acquainted. I have several times attempted to
separate this perfume by distillation both with

SWEET SCENTED WATER LILY. 139

water and spirit, but have never succeeded in
preserving it in the faintest degree. It is much
more fugacious than the perfume of roses, and
seems to be destroyed by the application of heat.
Possibly the employment of a large quantity of
flowers at a time might yield a better product.
The stamens appear more odorous than the
petals, or at least preserve tbeir odour longer in
drying.

The roots of the water lily are kept by most
of our apothecaries, and are much used by the
common people in the composition of poultices.
They are, no doubt, often injudiciously applied to
suppurating tumours, since their astringency
must be rather discutient, than promotive of
suppuration. They are occasionally used by
physicians in cases where astringent applications
are called for, and answer a purpose somewhat
analogous to that of lead poultices and alum
curds. The roots, which, when fresh, are large
and fleshy ; in drying, lose a great part of tbeir
weight and size, becoming spongy and friable.

The N^mphsea alba of Europe, which appears
perfectly similar in its qualities to the American
plant, was celebrated by the ancients, [JVo/e C ]
as an antaphrodisiac, and as a remedy in dysen-
tery and some otber morbid discharges. To the
19

140 NYMPH J£ A ODORATA.

latter purpose its astringency might, in some
instances, make it well suited. The roots and
seeds of the Nymph sea lotus were used hy the
ancient Egyptians as bread.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Nympheea odorata, Willd. Sp. pi. ii. 1153. — Bot. Mag. 819.—
Bot. Expository, 297. — Pursh, ii. 368. — Nymphsea alba, Michaux,
i. 311. — Walter, Carol. 155. Castalia pudica, Salisbury, Jlnnah
of Bot. ii. 71.

MEDICAL REFERENCE.

Cutler, Jimer. Transactions, i. 456.

PLATE LV.

Fig. 1. Leaf and flower ofNymphcea odorata,

Fig. 2. Different stamens from the same flower.

Fig. 3. Stigma.

Fig. 4. Section of the germ.

Fig. 5. Jl cell of the germ magnified.

Fig. 6. Section of the scape.

Fig. 7. Section of petiole.

■J7/'//r,> /'f ///'<•///'//<'<'• J

PRINOS VERTICILLATUS.

Black Mder.

PLATE LVL

After the leaves have fallen in autumn, this
shrub becomes conspicuous by its glossy scarlet
berries, which adhere in bunches, for a long time,
to the sides of the branches. Of the objects
which impart any liveliness to this season of
decay, the most noticeable are those which change
the hue of their leaves from green to red, as the
oaks, the vaccinia, 65c. those which flower late, as
the Hamamelis, and those whose fruit attains to
maturity under the influence of frost, and appears
fresh and vegetating, while other things are
withering about them. The species of Prinos
are of the last description.

This genus consists of shrubs, a part of which
are deciduous, and a part evergreen ; bearing
§mail lateral or axillary flowers. It is nearly

142 PHINOS VERTICILLATUS.

related to the Ilices or Holly s, differing chiefly
in the number of its parts. Its character is
formed by a six cleft calyx, a monopetalous
subrotate six cleft corolla, and a six seeded berry.
The Prin os verticillatus has its leaves deciduous,
oval, serrate, acuminate, slightly pubescent be-
neath ; flowers axillary, aggregate.

These shrubs have usually been referred to
Hexandria Monogynia. The present species and
some others having different flowers on separate
plants, Michaux was induced to place them in
Dicecia. The natural orders to which they are
assigned are Bumosce of Linn, and Rhamni of
Juss.

The Black Alder, for so the shrub is usually
called, is found in swamps and about the edges of
streams and ponds from Canada to the Southern
states. It is irregular in its growth, but most
commonly forms bunches six or eight feet in
height. The leaves are alternate or scattered,
on short petioles, oval, acute at base, sharply
serrate, acuminate, with some hairiness, particu-
larly on the veins underneath. The flowers are
small, white, growing in little tufts or imperfect
umbels, which are nearly sessile in the axils of
the leaves. Calyx small, six cleft, persistent
Corolla monopetalous, spreading, without a tube.

BLACK ALDER. 148

the border divided into six obtuse segments.
The stamens are erect, with oblong anthers. In
the barren flowers they are equal in length to the
corolla, in the fertile ones, shorter. The germ,
in the fertile flowers, is large, green, roundish,
with a short neck or style, terminating in an
obtuse stigma. These are followed by irregular
bunches of bright scarlet berries, which are
roundish, supported by the persistent calyx, and
crowned with the stigma, six celled, containing
six long seeds, which are convex outwardly and
sharp edged within. These berries are bitter
and unpleasant to the taste, with a little sweet-
ness and some acrimony.

The bark of the Black alder is moderately
bitter, but inferior in this respect to many of our
shrubs and trees. It discovers very little astrin-
gency either to the taste, or to chemical tests.
A decoction which I made of the dried bark
underwent no alteration on the addition of dis-
solved gelatin, and only changed to a dark green
with the sulphate of iron. Alcohol produced
hjardly any change. The tincture, in alcohol, was
found moderately bitter, and was not altered by
water.

The piack alder has had a considerable repu-
tation as a tonic medicine, perhaps more than it

144 PRINOS VERT1CILLATUS.

deserves. The late Professor Barton tells us,
that the bark has long been a popular remedy in
different parts of the United States, being used in
intermittents and some other diseases as a sub-
stitute for the Peruvian bark ; and on some
occasions, he thinks it more useful than that
article. " It is employed both in substance and
in decoction, most commonly, however, in the
latter shape. It is supposed to be especially
useful in cases of great debility accompanied with
fever ; as a corroborant in anasarcous and other
dropsies, and as a tonic in cases of incipient
sphacelus or gangrene. In the last case," he
says, "it is unquestionably a medicine of great
efficacy. It is both given internally and employed
externally as a wash."

Dr. Thacher recommends a decoction or in-
fusion of the bark taken internally in doses of a
teacupful, and employed also as a wash, for the
cure of cutaneous eruptions, particularly of the
herpetic kind.

I have had but little experience with the
bark of the Prinos which gave me much satis-
faction. Indeed the tests of tonic remedies are
of a more ambiguous kind than those of most
other medicines. Vegetable barks, which are
bitter and astringent, are generally tonic, if they

BLACK ALDER. 145

have no more striking operation ; and in this
property they differ in a degree somewhat pro-
portionate to their bitterness and astringency.
Judging by these criterions, the Prinos is not
entitled to hold a very exalted rank in the list of
tonics. As a bitter it is at best but of the second
rate, and in astringency it falls below a multitude
of the common forest trees.

The berries are recommended by the writers
above cited, as possessing the same tonic proper-
ties with the bark. They certainly possess some
activity, which, in large quantity, is not of the
tonic kind. I have known sickness and vomiting
produced in a person by eating a number of these
berries found in the woods in autumn.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Prinos verticillatus, Linn, Sp. pi. — Pursh, i. 220. — Prinos Gro-
novii, Michaux, ii. 236. — Prinos padifolius, Will©. Enum. Berok
394.

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

B. S. Barton, Collections, ii. 5. — Thacher, Lisp. 324,

140 PRrNOS VERTICIIXATUS.

PLATE LVL

Fig. t. Prinos verticillatus, a branch in flower;

Fig. 2. Ripe berries.

Fig. 3. Calyx magnified.

Fig. 4. The rest of the flower ditto.

Fig. 5. Stamen of the barren flower magnified.

Fig. 6. Germ of the fertile flower ditto-.

, '/<//•/'/'//<<'/ <z //(/sf/f/ y /.i

SABBATIA ANGULAEIS.

American Centaury.

PLATE LVIL

Under the name of Chironia angularis, this
plant has been familiar to physicians in the
United States as a native bitter. As it wants the
most distinguishing characters of Chironia, while
it has others of a very different kind, particularly
in the anthers and stigma ; I have followed the
example of Pursh and others in referring it to the
genus Sabbatia of Adanson.

This genus is characterised by a persistent
calyx from jive to tivelve parted ; a corolla from
jive to tivelve parted; anthers finally revolutc ;
stigma ttvo parted, spiral ; capsule one celled.
The Sabbatia angularis differs from the rest of
the genus in being erect, the leaves clasping,
peduncles elongated and corymbose, segments of
the calyx lanceolate, half as long as the corolla ;
stem square and winged.

148 SABBATIA ANGULAHIS.

Class Pentandria, order Monogynia ; natural
orders Rosacece, Linn. Gentianas, Juss.

This plant grows in damp rich soils through-
out the Middle and Southern states, and is most
commonly known by the name of Centaury. It
is commonly from one to two feet high. The
stem is erect, smooth, square, with the angles
winged. Branches axillary, opposite. The leaves
are opposite and ovate, but vary in length and
width. They are heart-shaped at base, clasping
half the stem, nerved, smooth, entire, acute.
Flowers terminal, forming a large corymb. Tube
of the calyx angular, with five broad segments.
Corolla five parted with oval segments twice as
long as the calyx. The anthers are oblong and
slightly recurved at the time when the flower
first opens. After shedding their pollen they
become revolute and curl up, but never assume
the spiral form like the anthers of Chironia.
Germ ovate ; style longer than the stamens,
declined ; stigma two parted, the segments
separate at first, but gradually becoming twisted
spirally together. Capsule one celled, two
valved.

Every part of this plant is a pure and very
strong bitter. In this quality, as well as in its
medicinal properties, it is resembled by several

AMERICAN CENTAURY. 149

other species of the same genus. An extractive
principle appears to be the seat of this property,
as it is communicated alike to alcohol and water,
and as the solutions in these fluids do not occa-
sion precipitates from each other. There appears
to be no astringency in the vegetable.

In the collections for an American Materia
Medica by the late Professor Barton, we are told
that this plant is a valuable tonic bitter resembling
the Centaury of Europe, for which it was used by
some practitioners on the supposition of its being
the same plant. It had long been a popular
remedy, and was much employed in the yellow
fever of Philadelphia, in 1793.

In Mr. Elliott's Botany of the Southern states,
we are told that the plant, in South Carolina, is a
common remedy in intermittent fever. Some of
the other species of the same family, particularly
S. gracilis, are equally efficacious. It is deserving
of remark, that a great number of vegetables,
belonging to tbe same natural order, are highly
bitter, and approved as tonic remedies.

From the use I have made of the Sabbatia,
I have no hesitation in attesting its utility. It
seems to me to rank among the more pure or
simple bitters, and acts usefully as a stomachic
and promoter of appetite and digestion. Beyond

150 SABBATIA ANGULARIS.

this, I have no experience with it. It may he
given in substance or in i illusion, but the latter
mode is generally preferred. This form is one
in which it appears to be largely used by physi-
cians in the Middle states. Dr. Chapman tells
us, it is resorted to extensively by every class of
practitioners, regular and irregular, in the inter-
mittent and remittent fevers. He thinks it has
the advantage over Peruvian bark of being sus-
ceptible of employment in every stage of these
diseases.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Sabbatia angularis, Pursh, Flora Jlmer. i. 137.— Elliott, Flora
I 285.— Chironia angularis, Willd. Sp. pi. i. 1067.— Michaux,
Flora, i. 146.

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

B. S. Barton, Coll. i. 15.— Chapman, Therapeutics, ii. 417.—
Elliott, L c. supra*

PLATE LVIk

Fig- 1. Sabbatia angularis.

Fig. 2. The stamen before it bursts, magnified.

Fig. 3. Stamen after bursting, do.

Fig. 4. Pistil magnified with the stigmas not yet twisted.

Fig. 5. Do. the stigmas having become spiral.

§b

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tttrttoti

ERYTHRONIUM AMERICANTOL

Common Erytlironium,.

PLATE LVIIl

.T or a considerable time the genus Erythro-
niuni was considered as containing only one
species, the E. dens canis of Europe and Asia.
The American plant was considered, by Michaux,
as a variety of the European, differing only in
colour. Later botanists have, with propriety,
separated it, and besides this, one or two other
American species have been added to the genus.*

The natural order, called Liliacew by Linnaeus,
and Lilia by Jussieu, is perhaps not exceeded by
any other, in the uniform elegance of all its spe-

* My friend Mr. F. Boott discovered a new species of Erythro-
nium on the Camel's rump mountain in Vermont, which he calls E.
bracteatum. Its character is E. foliis incequalibus, scapo bracteato.
In all the specimens gathered by that gentleman, the leaves were
very unequal, one being twice the size of the other ; the scape had
also a lanceolate bracte near the top. The flower was yellow and
about half the size of E. dmericanum.

152 ERYTHRONIUM AMERICANUM.

cies. The Lily, Tulip, Crown imperial, and
Gloriosa are specimens of this order. They
belong to the same artificial class and order Hex-
andria trigynia, and have a close affinity in all the
parts of their structure. The Erythronium,
ivhich is generally called, I know not for what
reason, Bog^s tooth violet, is one of the smallest of
the order.

This genus has no calycc. Its corolla As
inferior, six petalled ; the three inner petals with
a callous prominence on each edge near the base.
The common American plant has its scape naked,
its leaves lanceolate and involute at the point; and
its style club-shaped and undivided. It is an early
flowering plant, being in blossom in the first part
of May. It grows in woods and fields in the
Northern and Middle states.

The root is a solid bulb, situated deep in the
ground, brown outside, and white and homoge-
neous within. The whole plant is smooth and
glossy. Scape naked, slender. Leaves two,
nearly equal, lanceolate, veinless, of a dark
brownish green, clouded with irregular spots,
sheathing the scape with their base, and termi-
nating in an obtuse callous point. Flower solitary,
drooping. Petals six, lanceolate, yellow, the
three outermost partly crimson on the outside,

COMMON ERYTHRONIUM. 153

the three innermost having an obscure tooth on
each side near the base. In a clear sun the petals
are expanded and revolute, but at night and on
cloudy days, they are nearly closed. Filaments
flat, anthers oblong-linear. Germ obovate, style
longer than the stamens, club-shaped, three
lobed at top and terminating in three distinct,
but not detached, stigmas. Capsule oblong-
obovate, somewhat pedicelled.

The bulb of this plant, judging from its
texture and taste, is almost wholly farinaceous.
When dry, it is mealy and free from any un-
pleasant flavour. Having lost my specimens of
the root at the time of preparing this article, I
was unable to submit this part to chemical exam-
ination. A tincture was prepared from some
dried leaves and flowers, which gave evidence of
resin being present, when tested with alcohol.
Water distilled from the same parts had a rather
disagreeable odour.

This vegetable possesses the power of acting
on the stomach as an emetic. About twenty
five grains of the green root and forty of the
recently dried root have produced nausea and
vomiting. When the root is fully and thoroughly
dried, or when it has been exposed to heat, it
appears to lose this property in a great measure.

154 ERYTHRONIUM AMERICANUM.

In its power of acting on the alimentary canal,
it resembles many other plants, which are related
to it in botanical habit. The Squill, Colchicum,
and Aloe are examples of this class, and even the
common Daffodil and Tulip are found to be
emetic. I have known a family of children to be
taken with violent vomiting from having, by
mistake, dug up, roasted and eaten some Tulip
roots, supposing them to be Artichokes.

It is probable that the medicinal activity of
the Erythronium is of a volatile naturej capable
of being dissipated by heat. Its farinaceous
portion, when duly separated, is no doubt innox-
ious. Gmelin, in his Flora Sibirica, states, that
the Tartars collect and dry the roots of Erythro-
nium dens canis, and boil them either with milk
or broth, and consider them as very nutritious
food. They are said nearly to resemble salep.
It is remarkable that farinaceous roots, which
possess active and even virulent qualities, do not
impart them to the fsecula, which constitutes so
large a portion of their bulk. The different
species of Arum, Calla, and the J;tropha Mani-
hot are examples of this fact, affording nutritious
bread, although their crude juices are more or
less poisonous.

COMMON ERYTHRONIUM. 1£»5

The leaves of the American Erythronium
are said to he more active than the root, but on
this subject I am not fully informed. It is
probable that the recent leaves have more activity
than the drv.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Erythronium Americanum, Ker, Bot. Mag. t. 1113. — NuttalLj
Genera, i. 223. — E. lanceolatum, Pursh, i. 230. — E. longifolium,
Poiret, Encycl. Methodique. — E. flavum, Smith, Rees' Cycl. — E.
dens canis, Michaux, Flora, i. 198.

PLATE LVIII.

Fig. 1. Erythronium Americanum, the flower rather more droop-
ing than common.
Fig. 2. One of the inner petals.
Fig. 3. Stamen.
Fig. 4. Pistil.
Fig. 5. Stigma magnified.
Fig. 6. Root.

3.1

XANTHOXYLUM F11AXINEUM.

Frickly Mi.

PLATE LIX.

The Prickly Ash is a slirub of middling
height, found in woods and moist or shady decliv-
ities in the Northern, Middle and Western states.
It is rare in Massachusetts and the states north
of it, its localities being very circumscribed.
After I had taken pains to procure specimens
from Connecticut, I accidentally discovered a
thicket of the shrubs in a wood in Medford, six
miles from Boston.

Late botanists have placed the genus Xan-
thoxyium in Pentandria Pentagynia, although it
is dioecious, or rather polygamous. Its calyx is
inferior, jive parted ; corolla none ; capsules from
three to five, one seeded. The X. fraxineum is
prickly, the leaves pinnate ; leafets ovate, suben-
tlre, sessile, equal at base ; umbels axillary.

2>L.LLY.

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0

PRICKLY ASH. 15/

Linnaeus placed the Xanthoxyla in his natural
order Dumoscv, but Smith thinks them better
arranged with the Hederacece. Jussieu places
them with his Terebintaceis ajjiiiia.

The branches of the Prickly ash are covered
with strong, sharp prickles, arranged without
order, though most frequently in pairs at the
insertion of the young branches. Leaves pinnate,
the common petiole sometimes unarmed and
sometimes prickly on the back. Leafets about
five with an odd one, nearly sessile, ovate, acute,
with slight vesicular serratures, somewhat downy
underneath. The flowers appear in April and
May before the leaves are expanded. They grow
in sessile umbels about the origin of the young
branches, are small and greenish. I have
observed them of three kinds, making the shrub
strictly polygamous. In the staminiferous flower
the calyx is five leaved, the leaves oblong, obtuse,
erect. Stamens five with subulate filaments and
sagittate four celled anthers. In the place of
pistils are three or four roundish corpuscles
supported on pedicels from a common base.
The perfect flowers, growing on the same plant,
have the calyx and stamens like the last ; the
germs are three or four, pedicelled, and having
erect, converging styles nearly as long as the

158 XANTHOXYLUM FRAXINEUM.

stamens. The pistilliferous flowers grow on a
separate shrub. Calyx smaller and more com-
pressed. Germs about five, pedicelled ; styles
converging into close contact at top, and a little
twisted. Stigmas obtuse. All the flowers are
destitute of corolla. Each fertile flower produces
an umbel of as many stipitate capsules as there
were germs in the flower. These capsules are
oval, covered with excavated dots, varying from
green to red, two valved, one seeded ; the seed
oval, blackish.

The bark of the Prickly ash has a slight
aromatic flavour, combined with a strong pun-
gency, which is rather slow in manifesting itself
in the mouth. The leaves are more aromatic,
very much resembling, in smell, the leaves of the
Lemon tree. The rind of the capsule is highly
fragrant, imparting to the fingers, when rubbed
between them, an odour much like the oil of
lemons. The odorous portion is an essential
oil residing in transparent vesicular points on the
surface of the capsules and about the margins of
the leaves. The acrimony, which resides in the
bark, has its foundation in a different principle ;
being separated by decoction, but not by distil-
lation ; at least none of it came over in my
experiments, which were repeated with both the

PRICKLY ASH. 159

green and dried bark. The water in which the
bark is boiled has a peculiar pungent heat, which
is not perceived when the liquid is first taken
into the mouth, but gradually developes itself by
a burning sensation on the tongue and fauces.
It retains this acrimony after standing a week
and more. The leaves do not appear to possess
the pungency of the bark, and impart no acri-
mony to the water in which they are boiled.
They abound in mucilage, which coagulates in
large films when alcohol is added to the decoction.
They seem to possess more astringency than the
bark, and strike a black colour with sulphate of
iron, while solutions, made from the bark, are but
moderately changed by the same test. The
alcoholic tincture of the bark is bitter and very
acrid. Its transparency is diminished by adding
water, and after standing some time it becomes
very turbid. Whether the acrimony of this
shrub resides in a peculiar acrid principle, or
whether it belongs to the resin and becomes
miscible with water in consequence of the presence
of mucilage, may be considered as yet uncertain.
The Prickly ash has a good deal of reputa-
tion in the United States as a remedy in chronic
rheumatism. In that disease its operation seems
analogous to that of Mezereon and Guaiacum,

100 XANTHOXYLUM FRAXINEUM.

which it nearly resembles in its sensible proper-
ties. It is not only a popular remedy in the
country, but many physicians place great reliance
on its powers in rheumatic complaints, so that
apothecaries generally give it a place in their
shops. It is most frequently given in decoction,
an ounce being boiled in about a quart of water.
Dr. George II ay ward, of Boston, informs me, that
he formerly took this decoction in his own case
of chronic rheumatism with evident relief. It
was prepared as above stated, and about a pint
taken in the course of a day, diluted with water
sufficient to render it palatable by lessening the
pungency. It was warm and grateful to the
stomach, produced no nausea nor effect upon the
bowels, and excited little, if any, perspiration.

1 have given the powdered bark in doses of
ten and twenty grains in rheumatic affections
with considerable benefit. A sense of heat was
produced at the stomach by taking it, but no
other obvious effect. In one case it effectually
removed the complaint in a few days. I have
known it, however, to fail entirely in obstinate
cases, sharing the opprobrium of failure with a
variety of other remedies.

The Prickly ash has been employed by
physicians in some cases as a topical stimulant.

PRICKLY ASH. 161

It produces a powerful effect when applied to
secreting surfaces and to ulcerated parts. In the
West Indies much use has heen made of the
bark of another species, the Xanthoxylum Clava
Herculis, in malignant ulcers, both internally
administered and externally applied. Commu-
nications relating to its efficacy may be found in
the eighth volume of the Medical and Physical
Journal, and the fifth volume of the Transactions
of the Medical Society of London.

By an ambiguity which frequently grows out
of the use of common or English names of plants,
the Aralia spinosa, a very different shrub, has
been confounded with the Xanthoxylum. The
Aralia, called Angelica tree, and sometimes
Prickly ash, is exclusively a native of the warmer
parts of the United States, being not found, to my
knowledge, in the Atlantic states north of Vir-
ginia. Its flavour and pungency, as well as its
general appearance, are different from those of
the true Prickly ash. It is nevertheless a valu-
able stimulant and diaphoretic, and in Mr. Elli-
ott's Southern Botany, we are told that it is an
efficacious emetic. For the latter purpose it is
given in large doses, in infusion.

The name Xanthoxylum, signifying yellotv
wood, was originally given by Mr. Colden. The

163 XANTHOXYLUM FRAXINEUM.

spelling has since been unaccountably changetl
to Zanthoocylon in a majority of the books which
contain the name. The etymology, however, can
leave no doubt of the true orthography.

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Xanthoxylum fraxineum, Smith, Re.es> Cycl. No. 12. — Z. fraxi-
neum, Pursh, i. 209. — Z. clava Herculis jS. Linnaeus, Sp. pi. — Z.
ramiflorum, Michaux, Flora, ii. 235. — Fagara fraxini folio, Duha-
mel, Jlrb. v. t. 97.

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

B. S. Barton, Collections, i. 25, 52 ; ii. 38. — Thacher, Dispen-
satory, sub Aralia spinosa.

PLATE LIX.

Fig. 1. Xanthoxylum fraxineum in fruit.

Fig. 2. A barren branch in flower.

Fig. 3. Fertile branch in flower.

Fig. 4. Barren flower magnified.

Fig. 5. Stamen, do.

Fig. 6. Abortive germ of the barren flower, do.

Fig. 7. Fertile flower, do.

Fig. 8. Pistils of ditto, do.

Fig. 9. Perfect flower, do.

Fig. 10. Capsule, do. beginning to open.

Fig. 11. Seed, do.

HUMULUS LUPULUS.

Common Hop.

PLATE LX.

jL he Hop vine is not only a native of most
countries in Europe, but is decidedly indigenous
in America. It often occurs wild in the Atlantic
states, and was found, by Mr. Nuttall, growing
spontaneously on the banks of the Missouri.
Sir J. E. Smith has quoted an old distich, which
seems to be illustrative of the period of its intro-
duction into practical use in England, about
Henry the YILI's time ; although he has no doubt
of its being really native in that country.* The
Hop being a medicinal article of some conse-
quence, and one generally retained by the Phar-
macopoeias j there is a propriety in introducing
it in a Medical Botany of the United States.

* " Turkeys, Carp, Hops, Pickerel and Beer
Came into England all in one year."

22

164 HUMULUS LUPULUS.

p

The genus Humulns, which has only a single
species, is found in the Linnsean class Dioecia,
and order Pentajidria. It belongs to the natural
orders Scabridw, Linn, and Urticce, Juss. Its
barren flowers have a calyx of five leaves and
no corolla. The fertile flowers have for their
calyx the scales of an anient, each two flowered ;
corolla of one petal, lateral ; styles two ; seeds
solitary, invested with the corolla.

The Hop vine is an ornamental plant, much
more frequently seen cultivated than wild, and
climbing to a great height. The root is peren-
nial. Stems annual, twining from right to left,
angular, rough, with minute reflexed prickles.
Leaves opposite, on long winding petioles, the
smaller ones heart-shaped, the larger ones three
or five lobed, serrated, veiny and extremely
rough. Flowering branches axillary, angular
and rough. Stipules two or four, between the
petioles, ovate, reflexed. Flowers numerous, and
of a greenish colour. Those of the barren plants
are very numerous and panicled. Their calyx
has five oblong, obtuse, spreading, concave leaves.
Corolla wanting. Stamens short, the anthers
oblong, and bursting by two terminal pores.
The fertile flowers, growing on a separate plant,
are in the form of an anient, having each pair of

COMMON HOP. 165

flowers supported by a calyx-scale, which is ovate,
acute, tubular at base. Corolla of one scale,
obtuse, smaller than the calyx and placed one on
each side of it, infolding the germ by their edge.
Germ roundish, compressed ; styles two, short;
stigmas long, subulate, downy. The scales of
the calyx and corolla swell into a kind of persis-
tent cone or strobile, each flower producing a
roundish seed.

The full grown strobiles constitute the part
which is preserved for use and sold in its dried
state under the name of Hops. These have an
aromatic, heavy odour, and a strong, bitter, but
not unpleasant taste. Besides the bitterness,
they have the characteristic taste which is found
in the leaves and other portions of the plant. On
the outside of the scales of the calyx and corolla
and near their base, is secreted a semi-resinous
substance in the form of minute, yellow, trans-
parent globules. This secretion appears to be
the seat of the whole bitterness for which the hops
are generally prized and consumed. Dr. Suiith,
in the English Botany, has observed, that the
fragrance and essential properties of the hop
reside in this resinous substance ; and more
recently an interesting series of experiments has
been published by Dr. A. W. Ives> of New York.

166 HUMULUS LUPUIAJS.

to show that this portion may effectually super-
cede all the rest, in common practical use.

This substance, when separated from the hops
by rubbing and sifting, exists in the form of a
fine yellow powder. It is adhesive when rubbed
hetween the fingers, and becomes agglutinated
by moderate heat. It is very inflammable, and
burns entirely out with a white flame, leaving a
light cinder.

Dr. Ives has made a variety of experiments
with this powder, from which he concludes that
it consists of tannin, extractive matter, a bitter
principle, wax, resin, and a woody fibrous sub-
stance, besides the aromatic principle, which he
was unable to separate in the form of volatile oil.
It may be observed, that the powder, as employed
by him, being obtained from the hops by agitation
and sifting, must necessarily contain a certain
portion of chaff or minute fragments of the scales ;
and that these are apparently the seat of the tan-
nin, the woody insoluble substance, and possibly
of some other ingredients. If the pure secretion
be carefully separated from the scales by brush-
ing, and dissolved in alcohol, it does not undergo
any change of colour from the sulphate of iron ;
although the scales themselves, as well as the

COMMON HOP. 167

leaves of the plant, strike a black colour when
treated with that salt.

Hops have long been made an ingredient in
malt liquors on account of the agreeable flavour
they communicate, and also from a preservative
quality which they are supposed to exert in
preventing acescency in those liquids. Dr. Ives
has shown that a prodigious saving of expense
might be made by brewers, if this powder were
separated at an early period, and used instead
of the hops themselves. He was able, without
much trouble, to separate fourteen ounces of the
powder from six pounds of hops, and concludes,
that if the hops were treated, during the process
of gathering and drying, with a view to the
preservation of the powder, they would yield at
least one pound in six. He has pointed out a
vast saving, which would take place in the
expense of transportation and storage, if an
article containing all the strength of the hop, and
occupying but small compass, were substituted
for one which is of more than twenty times its
bulk. An enormous loss would farther be pre-
vented, which now takes place from the absorption
produced by the hops, it being calculated that one
barrel of wort is absorbed by every sixty pounds
of hops used in brewing. He enumerates still

168 HUMULUS LUPULTJS.

farther advantages which would result from the
easier preservation of the article, its superior
flavour, and the diminished chance of adulteration,
arising from reduction of price.*

The researches of Dr. Ives are entitled to
great commendation, as they seem to promise a
highly economical improvement in an important
branch of domestic manufacture. In Great
Britain, where malt liquors are more extensively
consumed than, perhaps, in any other country,
the saving must be an object of more conse-
quence, than with us. It remains to be ascer-
tained whether any effectual and economical
method of separating the powder from the stro-
biles can be brought into practical use.

In medical practice the hop has been found
a decided and useful tonic. A fermented
decoction, known by the name of hop beer, and
usually formed from this article with the simple
addition of treacle, is much used in the New
England states. When made sufficiently bitter
with the hops, and taken as a common drink at
meals, it promotes digestion more than any of

* The term Liipulin, by which Dr. Ives designates the powder
of the hop, is convenient and not objectionable for practical use.
As a chemical term, however, it does not agree with those of similar
termination employed in the science; which express proximate
principles of vegetables &c. and not heterogeneous bodies.

COMMON HOP. 169

the table liquors in common use. It is service-
able in dyspeptic complaints, and is particularly
adapted to obviate the lassitude and debility felt
by persons of relaxed habit in the spring, or on.
the approach of warm weather. A simple infu-
sion has been employed for tins purpose, but the
fermented liquor derives a quality from the
presence of carbonic acid, which renders it more
agreeable, both to the palate and stomach.

The bitter principle of the Hop, in which its
tonic property appears to reside, is abundantly
soluble in water. Alcohol not only extracts this
portion, but dissolves also the resinous constitu-
ents of the medicine. The tincture of hops is
found to be bitter and aromatic, and to exert not
only a strengthening- effect on the viscera, but
to influence considerably the nervous system in
the character of an anodyne and soporific medi-
cine.

I have employed the tincture of hops very
often in practice, and have, on the whole, had
quite as much reason to be satisfied with its tonic
operation, as with that of any of the bitter tinc-
tures in common use. Its narcotic power is
slight when compared with that of opium, yet it
nevertheless has, in certain cases, a decided
property of procuring sleep. I have particularly

170 HUMULUS LUPULUS.

found it effectual in the case of persons advanced
in life, who had been accustomed to the moderate,
but increasing use of spirituous liquors ; and who
at length have considered it impossible to pro-
cure a quiet night's sleep without a preparatory
draught of this kind taken warm at bed time.
In such cases I have found a teaspoonful of the
tincture of hops to go as far in its composing
effect, as two or three ounces of ardent spirit.

Mr. Freake, who published in the Medical and
Physical Journal some account of the properties
of this medicine, states that he had found it de-
cidedly advantageous in erysipelas, in gout and in
some other diseases. He considers its beneficial
effects to arise from its alterative and tonic power
on the system. He thinks it sedative, aperient
and diuretic ; and a good antiseptic and corrobo-
rant in bowel complaints. In his practice he had
found pain to be eased and rest procured with
this medicine, when opium did not succeed.

Dr. Maton found that besides allaying pain
and procuring sleep, the preparations of hops
were capable of reducing the frequency of the
pulse, and increasing its firmness in a direct
manner. One drachm of the tincture and four
grains of the extract given once in six hours re-
duced the pulsations from ninety six to sixty in

COMMON HOP. 171

the course of twenty four hours. He found the
extract very efficacious in allaying the pain of
of articular rheumatism.

Some experiments of Dr. Bigsby and others
have not been found to confirm the previous
character of this article in all the foregoing
respects, and its sedative powers have been called
in question. As in most new medicines, its vir-
tues have doubtless been exaggerated by its earli-
est advocates ; yet it is not on this account to be
discartled from use. Although the narcotic
powers of the hop are not of the most energetic
kind, they nevertheless do exist, and the very
circumstance of their mild and temperate influ-
ence renders them, in many cases, safer than
those of more active drugs.

In regard to the lithontriptic power which
has been imputed to hops both aloue, and through
the medium of malt liquors, it is not probable
that they have any operation of this sort, beyond
that of a palliative.

The external application of hops has long had
the popular reputation of being anodyne and com-
posing. A pillow of hops is thought instrumental
in procuring sleep, but with what justice I am
unable to say. Poultices and fomentations made

of them are in repute as sedative applications for
23

17% HUMULUS LUPULUS.

painful swellings. When steeped in hot brandy
and held in the mouth, they sometimes relieve
the pain of a carious tooth. For all these pur-
poses, no doubt, they often fail, yet there is little
temerity in asserting that they are equally to be
depended on in such cases, with the rest of the
articles of the Materia Medica.

The most common form for internal use,
where a sedative effect is desired, is that of the
saturated tincture. The powder separated from
the hops may be given in substance with a cer-
tainty of securing all their medicinal effects.
This powder must be given in small doses, to be
retained on the stomach and bowels. Dr. Bry-
orly found that twenty or twenty five grains left
a sense of acrimony in the throat, and were fol-
lowed by a good deal of nausea, and in some
instances by purging.

The vine of the hop has been appropriated
to some economical uses. In spring, when the
young shoots first emerge from the ground, they
are boiled and eaten as asparagus, and are
accounted very salubrious. The fibres of the vine
are strong and flexible and have been manufac-
tured into a coarse cloth in Sweden and England,
particularly for the sacks in which the hops are
carried to market.

COMMON HOP. 178

BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

Humulus lupulus, Linn. Sp. pi. — Smith, Engl. Bot. t. 427. —
Miller, Illustrations, t. 88. — Michaux, ii. — Puush, i. 199. — Nut-
tall, ii. 237. — Lupulus mas et fsemina, Ray, Syn. 137.

MEDICAL REFERENCES.

Freake, Med. and Phys. Journal, xiii. 432. — Thompson, Lon-
don Dispensatory, 200. — Bigsby, London Medical Repository, v. 97.
— Bryorly, Inaug, Diss. Philad. 1803. — Ives, in Silliman''s Jour-
nal, ii. 302.

PLATE LX.

Fig. 1. Humulus lupulus in fruit.

Fig. 2. Fertile flowers.

Fig. 3. Calyx and pistil of do. (the corolla omitted by mistake

of the engraver.)
Fig. 4. B arisen flowers.
Fig. 5. Stamen magnified.

NOTES.

Note A.

Ranunculi, quod aliqui apium agreste nominant, plura quideiu
sunt genera : at vis tamen omnibus una, acris scilicet ac vehementer
exulcerans. Ac unum quidem coriandri foliis constat, sed latioribus,
subalbidis et pinguibus: flore luteo, interdiim purpureo. Caulis
minime crassus est, sed cubitum altus. Radice nititur exigua, Can-
dida et amara, adnatis ceu capillamentis, hellebori modo, fibrata:
juxta fluenta nascitur. Alterum est lanuginosius, longioreque
caule, pluribus foliorum incisuris, plurimum in Saridinia proveniens,
acerrimum, quod etiam sjlvestre apium appellant. Est et tertium
valde parvum et odore gravi; flore aureo. Quartum simile huic,
flore lacteo. Folia et caules tenelli vim habent illitu exulcerandi, et
usque adeo urendi, ut etiam crustas cum dolore inducant. Quare
scabros ungues auferunt, psoras removent, stigmata delent : itemque
formicationes ac pensiles verrucas et alopecias ad breve tempus im-
posita tollunt. Quin et repente eorum decocto perniones foventur.
Radix vero sicca tritaque, sternutamenta ciet, naribus admota:
dentium quoque dolores appensa levat, ipsos tamen rumpit.

Dioscorides. Interp. Sarraceni, Lib. ii. Cap. 206.

Note B.

Sponte jam patet, internum Euphorbii usum periculo plenum
esse. Sed confirmant id infortunia, specialibus casibus subnata.
Obiit quidam, cui empiricus illud imprudenter exhibuerat, dysenteria
eodem die. Virgo venusta seni decrepito, se invita, desponsata ad
mortem sibi conciliandam pulverem Euphorbii ingessit, unde dolores
ventris atrocissimi, hvpercatharses cum vomitionibus frequentissi-

176 NOTES.

mis, singultu, ardore ventriculi et faucium sitique inextinguibili,
tandem sudores frigidi et animi deliquia : ex quibus angustiis tamen
arte emersit Nihilomimus tamen quidam illud praecipere ausi
sunt, et instar drastid, quod pituitam, sed potentius aquam, subdu-
ceret in iis, quibus venter nimis contra alia mitiora torpet, vel ut
loqui amant, friget, in hydropicis praecipue admiserunt. Ita ./Etius,
Actuarius et Arabes non nulli. Galenus et Dioscorides tacent de vi
ejus purgante. Omnes tamen, qui ore captum concedunt, cautionem
summam injungunt, et connubium, cum iis, quae acrimonium ejus
frangere valent, vel praegressam mitigationem desiderant. Hanc
ipsam tentarunt oleo amygdalino, succo Citri, phlegmate Vitrioli,
Mastiche, Croco, Tragacantha, Melle aliisque bene multis secundum
varium de ejus natura conceptum. Sed ejusmodi correctiones vel
non sufficiunt, vel, si sufficiunt, ipsam vim medicaminis destruunt.
Minuere dosin vel rite illam diluere, aliis exemplis artis est. Ast
nondum comprobata vera dosis est. Ad grana decern permittit
Sennertus, alias non ineptus subdolse Euphorbii vis judex; a grano
uno ad octo cum semisse concedit Heurnius ; a granis duobus sex
vel octo Geoffroy. Omnibus hisce audacior et Fallopius, qui prse-
ceptovis sui Machesii auctoritate et propria experientia ductus, non
dubitavit Euphorbii vetusti drachmam unam, rarius scrupulos qua-
tuor, dare. Mixtum Cassia mitius deprehendit quam solutum, qua
forma sitim intolerabilem et evacuationem largiorem creavit. Sed
praestat usum internum eiusdem omnino negligere.

Murray Apparatus Medicaminum sub Euphorbia officinarum.

Note C.

Nymplisea in paludibus stagnantibusque aquis nascitur: folia
vero habet iEgyptiee fabee similia, at minora oblongioraque, plura ab
una eademque radice prodeuntia: quorum alia super aquam quodam-
modo extant, alia in ea ipsa demerguntur: florem album, lilio simi-
lem, in quo medium croceiim est. At cum defloruerit, calyculus
rotundus, figura malo aut papaveris capiti similis, idemque niger,
extuberat : in quo semen nigrum, latum, densum, atque gustanti len-
tum glutinosumve recluditur. Caulis est lsevis, minime crassus,

NOTES. 177

niger, iEgyptise fabse caiili similis : radix nigra, scabra, clavee simi-
lis, quse autumno secatur. Ea sicca, cum vino pota, cceliacis ac
dysentericis auxiliatur, lienemque consumit. Stomachi quoque ac
vesicae doloribus sedandis ipsa radix imponitur, et alphos ex aqua
emendat : alopeciis etiamnum cum pice imposita medetur. Eadem
contra veneris insomnia bibitur, siquidem ilia in totiim adimit : quin
et aliquot diebus continenter epota, genitale ita infirmat, ut arrigi
minime possit. Idem porro seminis quoque poti effectus est. Cse-
teriim a nymphis nymphwee nomen sibi vendicasse creditur, quoniam
loca amet aquosa. Plurima autem inuenitur in Helide, Anygro
amne, et in Bceotiee Aliarto.

Dioscorides interp. Sarraceni, iii 148.

APPENDIX.

PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA.

It has been already stated that the incon-
veniences in the emetic operation of this plant are
its slow commencement, long continuance, and
occasional narcotic effect. I have, since writing
the article, become acquainted with instances of
hypercatharsis, following the employment of this
medicine in large doses. A physician informed
me that having himself occasion for an emetic,
he took twenty grains of Pulv. Phytolacca, which
not operating readily he took twenty more within
an hour. This large quantity brought on severe
vomiting, which continued until his strength was
exhausted. A hypercatharsis followed attended
with inflammation of the bowels from which he was
a week in recovering. In a few other instances
I have known a decided effect take place on the
retina, producing blindness for two or three

24

180 APPENDIX.

hours. In general, it may be considered im-
proper to give large quantities of this medicine,
or to accumulate it bj the repetition of small
quantities. In these respects it has not the safety
of the officinal Ipecacuanha. See some remarks
on this subject under the article Euphorbia
ipecacuanha, Vol. iii. p. 117.

ARUM TRIPHYLLUM.

The root of this plant has sometimes been
taken internally as it would seem without injury.
The late Dr. Osborne, of New York, informed me
that he had given it in the form of confection, or
in emulsion with milk and sugar, in cases of great
prostration attending the advanced stages of
typhoid fevers. He thought it useful as part of
a cordial regimen, and had found that patients
bore it as well as cayenne pepper or any similar
stimulant. In the American Medical Recorder,
for July 1820, Dr. Burgon, of Pennsylvania, has
inserted some account of its beneficial operation
in asthma, chronic, catarrh, and similar com-
plaints. It is undoubtedly a stimulant of the
most powerful kind, and when fresh should be
taken with great caution. In its dried state it is
uncertain in its strength, and sometimes wholly
inert.

APPENDIX. 181

TRIOSTEUM PERFOLIATUM.

That the Aborigines made use of this plant
in medicine is attested in Mr. Clayton's letter to
Dr. Grew in the Philosophical transactions, Vol.
VIII. of Hutton's abridgment. He says,
" There is another herb which they call Indian
purge. This plant has several woody stalks
growing near three feet tall, and perfoliate ; it
bears yellow berries round about the joints.
They only make use of the root of this plant."
From this description it is sufficiently obvious
that the plant in question was no other than
Triosteum perfoliatum.

CICUTA MACULATA.

The following is part of a letter from Dr.
Richard Hazeltine of Lynn, Mass. dated May
9, 1818, which was accompanied by a root o
Cicuta maculata, but received after I had printed
the article on that plant.

" On Friday, the 17th of last month, between
two and three o'clock P. M. I was called to see
a boy aged four years, in the last struggles of

182 APPENDIX.

expiring life, from having eaten and swallowed
some of a root, of which I send you a sample.
" The history of the circumstances of the case,
as accurately as I could obtain them, was as
follows : — Between nine and ten o'clock A. M.
of that day, two or three of the children of the
Family were observed to be eating certain roots
which they had found in a ploughed field near
the house, and which they supposed to be
ground nuts, artichokes, or something that was
innoxious. The boy first complained that he had
pain in his bowels, and felt as if he had a call to
a dejection, and was directed to go to stool ; but
very soon returned and said he could do nothing.
In a few seconds he puked, and brought up, as
an intelligent woman, who was present, told me,
a teacup full of what she believes to be the
recently masticated root. Upon questioning her
particularly upon the point, she told me that the
first impression made upon her mind after seeing
the boy puke was, that the vomiting was occa-
sioned by the root that he had eaten. Immedi-
ately after puking, he fell back in convulsions,
which, with various remissions and exacerbations,
continued till he died. A physician was directly
called, who, believing the convulsions to be owing
to the poisonous quality of the root which he had

APPENDIX. 183

eaten, endeavoured to excite vomiting, by admin-
istering what I supposed to be a solution of
tartrite of antimony in water. I was told that
the physician took his leave about one o'clock,
having been unable to excite vomiting, and ex-
pressing an opinion, that the boy would continue
but a few moments. I found the boy in a profuse
sweat, and in constant convulsions. The convul-
sive agitations consisted of tremors ; violent con-
tractions and distortions, with alternate and
imperfect relaxations of the whole muscular
system ; astonishing mobility of the eyeballs and
eyelashes, with zvidely dilated pupils ; stridor den-
tium; trismus ; frothing at the mouth and nose,
mixed with blood ; and occasionally, violent and
genuine epilepsy ; of which he had two paroxysms
after I arrived, which was only about half an hour
before he expired. The convulsive agitations
were so powerful and incessant, that I could not
examine his pulse with sufficient constancy to
ascertain its character. Yery soon after dissolu-
tion, and sometime before the natural warmth
had become extinct, the limbs became remark-
ably rigid. With a view to empty the stomach,
I attempted to get down Pulv. Ipecac in warm
water, in which, although I succeeded tolerably
well, yet I could not possibly excite vomiting.

184 APPENDIX.

even with the addition of frequent and active
titillation of the internal fauces with a goose
quill.

"The next day (Saturday) at 4 o'clock, P. M.
rather more than twenty four hours after dis-
solution, I examined the body. The extremities
were more flexile than usual after death. Upon
turning the body on the left side, a quantity of
greenish coloured fluid issued from the mouth.
The viscera of the thorax and abdomen being
exposed, nothing remarkable appeared, except
a greater degree than common of distention from
flatus. The stomach was distended to the
capacity of at least three pints, from flatus, and
about three gills of a muciform, greenish fluid,
such as had flowed from the mouth ; on the sur-
face of which was plainly distinguished some of
the masticated root. On this point the persons
present spoke with confidence. There were
no appearances of inflammation. I endeavoured
to ascertain whether there were worms, but
could find none. The liquid found in the stomach
after exposure to the air for half an hour in a
vessel, assumed a dark green.

"Highly interested to know what the root was
which had caused the boy's death ; immediately
after he died I went to the ploughed ground

APPENDIX. 185

whence he procured it, and soon found one of the
same kind, entire, and of the size of a middling
potatoe. It is, I helieve, what botanists call a
'tuberous root.' I broke off one of the knobs
or buds, by which it was unequivocally ascer-
tained to be of the same kind of that of which he
ate a portion, and of which a piece was preserved.
I planted the root which 1 found. in my garden ;
and perceive that its sprouts already begin to
appear above ground ; so that I flatter myself
the ensuing seasons will develop its botanical
character. The specimen which I send you, is
a knob broken off from the main body of the
root which I planted in my garden ; and will,
perhaps, at once, be recognised by you. If it
should not, I hope ere long to exhibit the vege-
table in its perfect state, and thereby obtain from
your kindness its botanical name and character."

KALMIA LATIFOLIA.

I believe that no narcotic effect ensues from
this shrub in any case where a moderate quantity
is taken. Dr. Osgood of Danvers informs me,
that having chewed and swallowed five or six
large leaves at once, he was affected with head-

186 APPENDIX.

ach and vomiting in consequence. Whether
this effect was owing to a peculiar quality of the
leaves, or merely to the large amount of a crude,
resinous substance taken into the stomach at
once, admits of some doubt. At any rate, if the
plant be of a deleterious nature, the quantity
requisite to produce ill consequences is greater
than any person will probably be in much dan-
ger of taking at a time.

PODOPHYLLUM PELTATUM.

Dr. Burgon, in the Medical Recorder, gives
the following account of the medical operation of
this plant. " The powdered root," says he, " is
extensively employed as a cathartic in bilious
complaints, and I am persuaded with as much
success as jalap. I have often prescribed it,
combined with calomel in the proportion of
twenty grains of the former to eight or ten of the
latter, and have uniformly been pleased with its
effects on my patients. In this dose it is ex-
tremely prompt and efficacious. My experience
enables me to state, that it is more drastic than
jalap, and of course occasions more active
catharsis, more severe griping, and makes a

APPENDIX. 187

more permanent impression on the system. Its
operation, in all cases in which I have admin-
istered it, is slower than that of jalap, hut it leaves
the howels longer in a lax and soluble condition.
I once took twenty grains at four o'clock P. M.
which gave me no disturbance till next morning,
when its operation commenced and produced
continual motions all that day and part of the
next night together with severe tornina ; this
was the first dose of Podophyllum I had ever
administered ; and its effects being so decided, I
have since prescribed it in a multitude of cases,
and for the most part with similar results. Like
most other drastic cathartics it is rendered milder
by combining it with calomel, and hence, in most
cases, this combination is to be preferred to
giving it alone. It is more disagreeable to the
stomach than common purgatives, and will
oftener occasion emesis. In bilious affections it
usually supercedes the necessity of an emetic
previous to a cathartic, and hence two desirable
effects are produced by one agent.

I was employed one afternoon in a close room
in powdering the Had. podophylli, which, by the
next morning, occasioned a most violent inflam-
mation of my right eye and eyelid ; it yielded,
however, to the antiphlogistic regimen in eight

or ten days.

25

SYSTEMATIC INDEX

BY THE

LINN^AN METHOD.

Iris versicolor.

Cornus florida.

Datura stramonium.
Hyoscyamus niger.
Nicotiana tabacum.
Solanum dulcamara.
Menyanthes trifoliata.
Sabbatia angularis.
Spigelia Marilandica.
Triosteum perfoliatum.
Lobelia inflata.

Aletris farinosa.
Erythronium Americanum

TRIANDRIA,

TETRANDRIA.

Ictodes foetidus.
PENTANDRIA.

Conium maculatum.
Cicuta maculata.
Gentiana Catesbsei.
Asclepias tuberosa.
Apocynum androsaemifolium.
Rhus vernix.
Rhus radicans.
Panax quinquefolium.
Statice Caroliniana.
HEXANDRIA.

Prinos verticillatus.

Dirca palustris.

Laurus sassafras.

Kalmia latifolia.
Rhododendron maximum.
Arbutus Uva ursi.
Gaultheria procumbens.

OCTANDRIA.
ENNEANDRIA.

DECANDRIA.

Pyrola umbellata.
Cassia Marilandica.
Phytolacca decandra.

190 SYSTEMATIC INDEX.

DODECANDRIA,

Asarum Canadense.

ICOSANDRIA.

Gillenia trifoliata. Rubus villosus.

POLYANDRIA.

Sanguinaria Canadensis. Liriodendron tulipifera.

Podophyllum peltatum. Magnolia glauca.

Nymphaea odorata. Illicium floridanum.

Coptis trifolia. Ranunculus bulbosus.

MONADELPHIA.

Geranium maculatum.

DIADELPHIA.

Polygala senega. Polygala rubella.

SYNGYNESIA.

Eupatorium perfoliatum. Solidago odora.

' GYNANDRIA.
Aristolochia serpentaria.

MONCECIA.

Arum triphyllum, Juglans cinerea.

DICECIA.

Xanthoxylum fraxineum. Myrica cerifera.

Humulus lupulus. Juniperus communis.

Euphorbia ipecacuanha. Juniperus Virginiana.

Euphorbia corollata.

POLYGAMIA.

Veratrum viride.

LATIN INDEX.

Plate.
L.

XXXVI.
VI.

XLIX.
IV.
XV.
XXVI.
XXXIX.

Aletris farinosa,

Apocynum androsaemifolium,

Arbutus Uva ursi,

Aristolochia serpentaria,

Arum triphyllum,

Asarum Canadense,

Asclepias tuberosa,

Cassia Marilandica,

Chimaphila corymbosa. Vide Pyrola umbellata.

Chironia angularis. Vide Sabbatia angularis.

Cicuta maculata, XII.

Conium maculatum, XI.

Coptis trifolia, V,

Cornus florida, XXVIII.

Datura stramonium, I.

jDirca palustris, XXXVII.

Dracontium fcetidum. Vide Ictodes fcetidus.

Erythronium Americanum,
Eupatorium perforatum.
Euphorbia corollata,
Euphorbia ipecacuanha,
Gaultheria procumbens,
Gentiana Catesbsei,
Geranium maculatum,
Gillenia trifoliata,

LVIII,

II.

LIII.

Lit.

XXII.

XXXIV.

VIII.

XLI.

Vol.
III.

II.

I.

III.

I.

I.

II.

II.

t

I.

I.

II.

I.

II.

III.

I.

III.

III.

II.

II.

I.

III.

Page.
92
14
66

828
52

149
59

166

125

113

60

73

17

154

151

33
119
107

27

137

84

11

Helleborus trifolius. Vide Coptis trifolia.

192 LA

TIN INDEX.

Helonias viridis. Vide Veratrum viride.

Humulus lupulus,

LX.

III.

163

Hyoscyamus niger,

XVII.

I.

161

Ictodes fcetidus,

XXIV.

II.

41

Ulicium Floridanum,

XL VIII.

III.

76

Iris versicolor,

XVI.

I.

155

Juglans cinerea,

XXXII.

II.

115

Juniperus communis,

XLIV.

III.

43

Juniperus Virginiana,

XLV.

III.

49

Kalmia latifolia.

XIII.

I.

133

Laurus sassafras,

XXXV.

II.

142

Liriodendron tulipifera,

XXXI.

II.

107

Lobelia inflata,

XIX.

I.

178

Magnolia glauca,

XXVII.

II.

67

Menyanthes trifoliata.

XL VI.

III.

55

Myrica cerifera,

XLIII.

III.

32

Nicotiana tabacum,

XL.

II.

171

Nymphsea odorata,

LV.

III.

134

Panax quinquefolium,

XXIX.

II.

82

Phytolacca decandra,

III.

I.

39

Podophyllum peltatuin,

XXIII.

II.

34

Polygala rubella,

LIV.

III.

129

Polygala senega,

XXX.

II.

97

Prinos verticillatus,

LVI.

IIL

141

Pyrola umbellata,

XXI.

II.

15

Ranunculus bulbosus,

XLVII.

III.

61

Rhododendron maximum,

LI.

IIL

101

Rhus radicans,

XLII.

III.

19

Rhus vernix,

X.

I.

96

Rubus villosus,

XXXVIII.

II.

160

Sabbatia angularis,

LVII.

III.

147

Sanguinaria Canadensis,

VII.

I.

75

Solanum dulcamara,

XVIII.

I,

169

Solidago odora,

XX.

I.

187

Spigelia Marilandica,

XIV.

1.

142

LATIN INDEX. 193

Spiraea trifoliata. Vide Gillenia trifoliata.

Symplocarpus fcetidus. Vide Ictodes fcetidus.

Triosteum perfoliatum, IX.

Veratrum viride, XXXIII.

Xanthoxylum fraxineum, LIX.

Zanthoxylum fraxinifolium. Vide Xanthoxylum fraxineum.

I.

90

II.

121

III.

156

ENGLISH INDEX.

American Centaury,
American Hellebore,
American Hemlock,
American Rosebay,
American Senna,
Apple Peru. See Thorn Apple.
Bayberry. See Wax Myrtle.
Bearberry,
Bitter Polygala,
Bitter sweet,
Black Alder,

Blazing Star. See Star Grass.
Blood root,
Blue flag,
Blue Gentian,

Bone set. See Thorough wort.
Buck Bean,
Bulbous Crowfoot,
Buttercup. See Bulbous Crowfoot.
Butterfly weed,
Butternut,
Callico bush. See Mountain Laurel.
Canada Snake root. See Wild Ginger.
Candle berry. See Wax Myrtle.
Carolina Pink root, XIV.

' Chequer berry. See Partridge berry.
20

Plate.
LVII.

Vol.
III.

Page.
147

XXXIII.

II.

121

XII.

I.

125

LI.

III.

101

XXXIX.

II.

162

VI.

I.

66

LIV.

III.

129

XVIII.

I.

163

LVI.

III.

141

VII.

I.

75

XVI.

I.

155

XXXIV.

II.

137

XLVI.

III.

55

XLVII.

III.

61

VI.

n.

59

XXXII.

ii.

115

142

196

ENGLISH INDEX.

Cocum. See Poke.

Common Erythronium,

Common Gillenia,

Common Juniper,

Crane's bill,

Dog's bane,

Dog wood,

Dragon root,

Fever root,

Garget. See Poke.

Ginseng,

Golden rod,

Gold Thread,

Hemlock,

Henbane,

Hop,

Indian Physic. See Common Gillenia.

Indian Tobacco, XIX,

Indian Turnip. See Dragon root.

Ipecacuanha spurge, LI I.

Ivy. See Poison Ivy.

Jamestown weed. See Thorn Apple.

Lamb kill. See Mountain Laurel.

LVII.

XLI.

XL1V.

VIII.

XXXVI.

VIII.

IV.

IX.

IX.

XX.

V.

XI.

XVII.

LX.

Large flowering spurge,

Leatherwood,

Marsh Rosemary,

Marsh trefoil. See Buck Bean,

May Apple,

Mountain Laurel,

Night shade. See Bitter sweet.

Oilnut. See Butternut.

Partridge berry,

Pink root. See Carolina Pink root.

Pipsissewa. See Winter green.

Pleurisy root. See Butterfly weed.

LIII.

XXXVII.

V.

III.
XIII.

II.

III.

III.

III.

I.

II.

II.

I.

I.

II.

I.

I.

I.

I.

III.

III.

III.

II.

II.

II.
I.

151
11

43
84
148
73
52
90

187
60
113
161
163

178

107

119

154

51

34
133

II.

ENGLISH INDEX.

197

Poison Dogwood. See Poison Sumach.

Poison Ivy,

XLII.

III.

19

Poison Sumach,

X.

I.

96

Poke,

III.

I.

39

Poke root. See American Hellebore.

Poplar. See Tulip tree.

Prickly ash,

LIX

III.

156

Red Cedar,

XLV.

III.

49

Red root. See Blood root,

Sassafras,

XXXV.

II.

142

Savin. See Red Cedar.

Seneca Snake root,

X.

II.

97

Sheep poison. See Mountain Laurel.

•

Skunk Cabbage,

IV.

II.

41

Swamp Sumach. See Poison Sumach.

Small Magnolia,

VII.

II.

67

Snake weed. See American Hemlock.

Spoon wood. See Mountain Laurel.

Star Grass,

L.

III.

92

Starry Anise,

XLIII.

III.

76

Tall Blackberry,

XXXVIII.

II.

160

Thorn Apple,

I.

I.

17

Thoroughwort,

II.

I.

33

Tobacco,

XL.

II.

171

Tulip Tree,

XXXI.

II.

107

Virginia Snake root,

XLIX.

III.

82

"Water Lily,

LV.

III.

134

Wax Myrtle,

XLIII.

III.

32

Wild Ginger,

XV.

I.

149

Wild Lemon. See May Apple.

Winter Green,

I.

II.

15

CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME.

Gillenia trifoliata,
Rhus Radicans,
Myrica cerifera,
Juniperus communis,
Juniperus Virginiana,
Menyanthes trifoliata,
Ranunculus bulbosus,
lllicium fioridanum,
Jlristolochia serpentaria,
Metris farinosa,
Rhododendron maximum,
Euphorbia Ipecacuanha,
Euphorbia corollata,
Polygala rubella,
Nymphcea odorata,
Prinos verticillatus,
Sabbatia annularis,
Erythronium Jlmericanum,
Xanthoxylum fraxineum,
Hamulus lupulus,
Notes,
Appendix.

Common Gillenia, page 11

Poison Ivy, 19

Wax Myrtle, 32

Common Juniper, 43

Red Cedar, 49

Buck Bean, 55

Bulbous Crowfoot, 61

Starry Anise, 76

Virginia Snakeroot, 82

Star Grass, 92

American Rosebay, 101

Ipecacuanha Spurge, 107

Large flowering Spurge, 119

Bitter Polygala, 129
Sweet scented Water Lily, 134

Black Alder, 141

American Centaury, 147

Common Erythronium, 151

Prickly Ash, 156

Common Hop, 163
175
179