GOOD’S FAMILY FLORA. AL THE nr FAMILY FLORA [g4s AND MATERIA MEDICA BOTANICA, CONTAINING THE BOTANICAL rads NATURAL HISTORY, AND Oe and adil Properties and Uses PLANTS: ILLUSTRATED BY COLORED ser peat OF ORIGINAL DRAWINGS, COPIED FROM NATURE. | BY PETER P. GOOD, EDITOR OF AN IMPROVED EDITION OF He AE ors OF THE LATE JOHN M. GOOD, M. D., F. R. S-, F. R. S. L.y MEM. AM. PHIL. 80C., AND F. L. Ss OF PHILADELPHIA, &C., &C. Karavoijjoare ra xpiva 7a avtévet, ob korea, otdi Aber \eyw dé ees, ova? Doropie 3 rg oeaaees vs nacn tn dogq avrov mepisGarsro ws ev rovrmy. aigscoue the — 5B: VOLUME Il. A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. ELIZABETHTOWN, N. eo ee PUBLIS SHED BY THE a TR COMMENDATIONS OF GOOD’S FAMILY FLORA. It is by no means the intention of the Author, in this advertisement, merely to puff or extol his Work—but simply to call public attention to it. He only asks that persons examine the several numbers of the Famity Fiora as they come from the press; and then if they do not acknowledge, and are not convinced, that it contains the choicest and most valuable matter as a “Text Boox’”—notwithstanding it is also a most acceptable and appropriate “ Partor, or Lapy’s Boox”—and withal the cheapest Prriopicat extant, not being affected by Age or Fashion, but always new, popular and interesting—he does not ask sub- scription or patronage; for he maintains that all claims to public favor or support must rest solely upon the real merits of the Work, and unless the Work in this respect maintains itself, and commands success, he would prefer abandoning it altogether. As evidence, however, of the opinions of some of our eminent Professors, who are best able to judge on the subject, he submits the following communications (in addition to those already presented in the first volume,) taken at random from several correspondents, who have favored him with their kind commendations. He avails himself also of this opportunity, to tender his most hearty welcome to the new subscribers who are continually coming in, and whose letters contain such flattering notices of the Fammy Fuora. There is room for them and their friends, and no effort shall be spared to make the Famiy Fiora more and more woe of their — encomiums. Frnt the Eclectic Medical Soicennt; Cincinnati, Ohio. Good’s Family Flora and Materia Medica Botanica—We have carefully perused the Family Flora, which the author, P. P. Good, A. M. of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, has had the kindness to forward to our address. This periodical is printed semi-monthly, but distributed to sub- scribers quarterly ; twelve numbers being bound together in pamphlet — form. It is devoted to the botanical analysis, and oe properties of both indigenous and foreign medical plants. Each number is embellished with one very, ee pea oe oe medical plant, which tends greatly to beautify the work. For neatness and elegance of style, we know of no pamphlet which — exceeds this. LSE Sos pile ep tok i a Loree oh plant, while the natural history, botanical analysis, and chemical and together — vi COMMENDATIONS. - with the adaptation of the agent to the cure of many diseases, are very accurately, and very systematically presented. No similar production with which we are acquainted, surpasses, if indeed it equals this in the accuracy of its botanical descriptions ; the description of the therapeutic virtues of many of the articles noticed, possesses equal merit. The author appears to be familiar with many of the plants not in use as remedial agents in the allopathic school of medicine, but which are in very common use amongst the Eclectic class of physicians. This speaks well for his liberality, and clearly manifests a disposition to keep up with the improvements of the science. The work is interesting and instructive, and recommends itself to the notice of every reformer in medicine. L. E. J. % From the New Jersey Medical Reporter, Burlington, N. J. Good’s Family Flora and Materia Medica Botanica, §¢,. §v-—This work is now in its fourth year, and though we have never had an op- portunity before of presenting it to our readers, we do so now with pierre: It is a new Jersey work, published at Elizabethtown, Essex o., and offers to the profession, in a cheap and convenient form, an account of the botanical, chemical, and medical properties, as well as the natural history of indigenous and other plants, that may at all times be made available to the medical practitioner, and particularly to the country physician, in the treatment of disease. Hach part contains twelve colored plates, and a mass of valuable information is condensed in a com- pact form, which ought to be within the reach ef every physician. The _ proprietor is his own engraver, printer, agent, and editor, and we cheer- fully urge upon our r claims of his valuable production, and hope, that she $F ay increase its circulation at least _ Address (post paid,) Peter P. Good, Elizabethtown, Essex County, - We submit also the following notices, taken at random from several hundred of the most popular newspapers and other publications:— _ - Good’s Family Flora has been received. It is, as usual, a neat and well-executed work, and is replete with interest, and cannot be too ex- tensively patronized. We would recommend it especially to Physicians. _ —Mercersburg Visitor. _ Good’s Family Flora. ‘This periodical continues to maintain its character for research and ability, and has strong claims on the patronage of a liberal and enlightened public. We think every Family should dapted to the general ‘all —Se, Clairsville —oO—orn Page. Titte anp Frontispiece, . 2 : P 3 oe | RECOMMENDATIONS, ; é ‘ 5 ’ ate Tasie or ConTENTS, . P : er. ‘ i VII INTRODUCTION TO THE ieee ¢ or Borany, . ‘ ; Ix Number. Poporpnytium Peitatum. May-apple, Wild mandrake. . ae Dapune Mezereum. Mezereon, Spurge Olive, . : Evratorium Perrotiatum. Boneset, Thorough-wort, . Soy Asarum Canapense. Canada Snake root, Colts foot, . pore Arum Trienyitum. Dragon-root, Wild SP eee Mentaa Pireritta. Peppermint, : : age Convo.vutus Scammonia. Scammony, Syrian Dhadiieolk ‘ ; Datura Srramonium. Thorn-apple, Jamestoumented, x ‘a, rp Cortis Trirotia. Gal lihread, Mint-root, . DeyelGe kite acd oa Liusium Canpioum. White lily, ae iscshut fee spain Arocynum AnpRos£Mirotium. Dogsbane, Biron. autene? Gentiana Lurea. Yellow gentian, . . . . . 4 Spreeria Maryianpica. Pink-root, Worm-grass, . Epes: Viris Vinirera.. Common. Vine grape, : ge Friosreum Perrouiaro. Fever-wort, Wild coffee, . ee Paraver Somnirerum, Poppy, White WONG, on eS Evcenta Prwenra. Pimenta, Alispicee, . . . . , g BeRss iia SESlesersseses Punica Granatum. Pomegranate, . . . 5 ArisTotocuiA Serrentaria. Virginia ashe ees Birt, Ipomza Jauara. Jalap, . : Hyprastis CANADENSIS. Pibrihartclrisk, Golden seal, . —e Houmurvs Lurvivus, Common hop, Cee eg ee ee Contum Macutatum. Hemlock, . . carne Evonymus Arrorurpvrevs. Spindle-tree, Wahoo, (nd) - os Hyoscyamus Nicer. Henbane, Poison tobacco, $c, . 8 . 9. 3 ‘Hepeoma Puteciowes. Pennyroyal, Tict-weed, Squaromint, &c. 74 Acontrum Napetius. Wolfsbane, Monkshood, &., . & 1 ae a ee oo) Cape Al _ Unicorn, Blazing-star, root, &., . 76 ASSIA ” Cassia, Purging-cassia, Pudding-pipe-tree, ee Aw et Pant Quinaverouton. Ginseng, Red-berry, Five fngers, &c., . 78 a. Blacksnake-root, Black cohosh, Squaw-root, 79 2 Guanes. Balmony, Snake-head, Shell-flower, §c., . 80 PERICUM PERFoRATUM. Common St. John’s-wort, . . . 81 [ACUM Orricinate. Lignum vite,Guaiacum, . . . 82 ‘TUM Vunear x. Tansy, Common tansy, . co ieee. oe Nicormana Tana 1 Tobacco, Virginia tobacco, é ‘ . 84- Ruevum Paumat Trea CHINENSIs. Frasera WaALTERI. | ubarb, . : = : ; ‘ ee The tea-plant, ; ‘ ; ‘ = oe ican columbo, Indian lettuce, . ; 3787 Creanotuus Americanus. New-Jersey tea, . ‘ : : . 88 Drymr: Wintert. Winter's Park-tree, : 2 - : . 89 Sozanom Tuserosum. Common potato, : »° 90 Cuetmonium Magus. Co.nmon c.landine, Piensa, ‘emetiere 91 Cotcaicum AutumnaLE. Meadow saffron, Naked lady, : eage Cissampetos Parerka. Velvet leaf, Icevine, . .° . . 98 Capparis Spinosa. The Capershrub, Capers . . . . 94 CortanoRum Sativum. Coriander, . : ‘ Pa 2) Coccvius Patmatus. The Columba-plant, Clee pe) OS SS Susscrirtion, $3. 00 per annum, in advance. “The Work i is printed in large octavo form; and each number con- tains a beautiful colored Plant, with four pages of Letter-press and is perfect and independent. Twelve numbers form a PART, published Quarterly in March, June, September and December of each year, and four of these parts make a year. The Title, Preface, Table of Contents, Glossary, &c., form an extra part to the first volume ; (or the Title, Table of Contents and Introduc- tion to the study of Botany form an extra part to the second volume.) These extra parts are each delivered at the close of the respective vol- ‘umes without additional charge, that the whole may be perfect for binding. The several PARTS are put up for the convenience of subscribers only, and may be forwarded per mail or otherwise wherever desired. All communications should be addressed (postage free) to PETER P. GOOD, Elizabethtown, Essex County, N. J. The FAMILY FLORA can only be obtained by application as above, (post paid,) with remittance ; et Ne te mete and pee oe VEGETABLE KINGDOM. : : S is . Vs s 5 ~ : ‘ ) S =: {3 in} . = )\4 ~ mn |3 Rites 8 e 3 £ pe % £13 a. | 2 x BS g Not \ Pistils and. X Sa, Ta ¥ Numberof Stamens. CLASSES. not adheing among themscives. y anwong theniselves. adherin. 34 j | adhering & 2 leosandria. | A Ta aS the Calyx. eae £2) § | adhering @ 13 Polyandria. BS 5 ee | receptacle. b= | A Stamens o? W Didynamia . QR ae RR | which 2 are. aia % longer. : - S38 | éstanens % Tetradynamia. QS | A longer. i 8 in cluster 16 Monadelphia. = attizedat base. $ ps 7 . ~ 5 Syl w | w2etusters 17 Diadelphia, ‘ H d turads alt at base. 28 in several dus VW Polydelphia. § ters afkat base. 8 SS . 2 | By anthers 19 Syngenesia. S adhering to the Pistil 20 Gynandria. or placed upow it. united | Stamens andpistils on same 21 Moneecia. ’ in Me same! plant, but distinet flowers. flower. S.and Pow two distinc. 22 Dicecia. plants. Flowers staminate, pistitate, YP oly ga mia. or portect on same, or aitfinent: yulants. < Stumens not visthie tothe naked Cv: 24. Cryp log ama. Hertperd Cann . Ne 39: RAN CLASSIFICATION. ‘3 aA ah LIN VEGETABLE KINGDOM. pis ids and Stamens vistble | same flower. always united in the BY at Number of not adhering among, themselves. ( egual among themselves . S Stamen. f tess than 20% Stamens . One Two Three. Four. Five. Sex. SCVEWL Light. Nine. Ter, ome cleven Lo nineteen. CLASSES. 1 Monandria. 2 Diandria. 3 Triandria . 4 Tetrandria. 5 Pentandria. 6 Hexandria. 7 Heptanaiea 8 Octandria. 9 Enneandria. 10 Decandria. il Dodeeandria. : : NAO LINNSAN CLASSIFICATION BCP agg INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF BOTANY. GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 1. The term Borany is properly applicable to the whole of the science, which includes the study and investigation of the vegetable kingdom. Hence the examination of the internal structure of Plants, and of the various processes concerned in their growth and reproduction— _ the description of which strictly constitutes but a branch of the science of Botany, and may be designated structural and physiological Botany. But by those who have made the study of the vegetable kingdom a means of interesting recreation, rather than a professed object of pursuit, and even by some who have considered themselves scientific botanists, this branch has been entirely overlooked: and the whole attention has been devoted to the other department of the science, which concerns the arrangement or classification of the many thousand species of Plants existing on the surface of the globe, into groups or divisions; each of which includes a number of species, that have certain characters in com- mon, and that differ from those of other groups. The advantages of such a plan in the saving of time and laborare obvious. If all the peculiarities of every species of plant had to be studied and recollected by them- selves, it would require a long acquaintance and a retentive memory, to become master of the characters of the numerous species of flowering plants, which our own country produces; and when this number is multiplied by a hundred, which it probably must be to represent the amount of sfiecies existing on the entire globe, it is obvious that no single — mind could be capacious enough to grasp the vast amount of detail thug __ _ accumulated. . COLLECTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF PLANTS. 2. It is the business of the Botanist, therefore, in the first place, to — collect plants from all sources open to him; and he then arranges them according to their species. Thus, we will suppose that he has collected all the plants of the Northern United States, and that he has obtained a _ 10 INTRODUCTION. corresponding series of plants of the Southern United States. Upon bringing them together, he would find that many species are common to the two places; but that some are peculiar to the Northern United States, others to the Southern United States. If he obtained, in addition a collection of South American plants, he would find that some of the species common to the Northern and Southern United States, are con- tained in it also; and that some species not known in the Northern United States are common to the Southern United States and South America; but he will find many peculiar to South America. Proceeding thus over the whole world, he would gradually increase his number of new species; at the same time adding considerably to the number of specimens of some which he would find very extensively diffused. He would find a few similar species almost every where,—these being the kinds most capable of adapting themselves to varieties in soil, climate, &c.; whilst on the other hand, he would find many of a very limited distribution,—being restricted to some small extent of country, in which alone they can find the conditions necessary for their growth. . DISTINCTION BETWEEN SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 3. The greatest difficulty in this part of the investigation consists in the discrimination of species really distinct,—that is to say, of races which have maintained their distinctive peculiarities, so constantly, that they must be considered as haying had originally different stocks,—from those varieties, which may often present differences really greater in species,.but which all sprung from the same original stock. Thus, for example, a collection of plants from different parts of India, would contain many specimens presenting such marked differences that the in- experienced Botanist would not hesitate to set them down as distinct species ; yet to one who has carefully examined the subject, and has made himself acquainted with the variations produced by the differences in soil and climate, so striking in this extensive tract, it becomes apparent that they are all members of the same. There is, too, in many species a remarkable tendency to run into spontaneous variations, for which no external influences will account. Thus the seeds of the same individual of the beautiful Fucusta, now naturalized in our green-houses, and in — the open air of the milder parts of the Northern United States, have been known to produce plants, whose flowers differ so much in shape and in the proportional length of the calyx and corolla, that if these had been collected and compared without the knowledge that they had been produced from one plant, they would have been regarded as distinct species, perhaps even (so striking is the difference) as distinct genera. Nearly the same is the case with another South American Plant, now INTRODUCTION. 11 much cultivated in the Northern United States,—the CaLcro.aria, or slipper-shaped flower ; of which an immense number of varieties, differ- ing widely in the shape, as well as the color of the flower, are now known, almost every horticultural exhibition having a new one; and the beautiful South American Amarytuiis has a like tendency, of which the gardener has taken similar advantage. 4. Hence in discriminating what are real species from what are simply varieties, the Botanist is treading on very insecure ground, until he has ascertained, for every species, its tendency to run into varieties of form, whether spontaneous or induced by change of external conditions. His greatest difficulty arises from those cases, in which have arisen what are termed permanent varieties, which reproduce themselves with the same — regularity as do real species. An instance of this in the animal kingdom is that of the different races of men, which are respectively distinguished by marked peculiarities, that are regularly repeated through each gener- ation; so that many naturalists have been inclined to regard them as really distinct species. There is, however, good evidence (independently of the Mosaic History,) to prove that they have all descended from a common stock. Precisely the same is the case in regard to Plants, many _ races of which even in the Northern United States, are still under discus- sion amongst Botanists ; some maintaining that they are distinct species, and others that they are but varieties. Thus of the Willow, seventy- one species have been stated by one authority to exist, whilst another reduces them to twenty-nine. The genus Rubus or common Bramble, has been thought to contain twenty-one species, which are probably re- ducible to six or eight. These details are here introduced for the purpose of putting the young Botanist on his guard against the tendency to multiply species, which is now sadly prevalent among many superficial _ writers, and which is still further encouraged by gardeners, who give new 8 c names to such varieties as is those just alluded to, and even to hybrids between these. COMBINATION OF SPECIES INTO GENERA. ‘5. When the Botanist has satisfied himself regarding the species which he has collected, his next step is to combine those amongst which he finds the greatest resemblance, into genera. Now in this process he must not be altogether influenced by similarity in their general external aspect, for this will often conceal great differences in their most important organs. There are certain parts which furnish essential characters, without similarity in which it would be wrong to associate species, however alike _ in other respects, in the same genus; and, on the other hand, there are _ parts so susceptible of variation, that the differences between them must be very striking indeed, to warrant the plants being arranged under _ 12 INTRODUCTION. different genera, when they agree in what have been termed the essential characters. Thus, for instance, the general outline of the leaf has been stated to be often subject to great variety, in accordance with the degree in which the space between the veins is filled up with fleshy paren- chyma; and in most cases, a difference in the outline of the leaves of two plants, the distribution of the veins remaining the same, would not alone serve to cause two plants exhibiting it to rank even as distinct species. But any considerable alteration of the veining would be held sufficient for such a separation; though the two plants, if agreeing in the structure of their organs of fructification, would still be placed in the same genus. On the other hand, a marked and constant difference in the organs of fructification would be rightly held sufficient to place the two species in different genera, even though the form and veining of the leaves might be precisely the same. On‘the relative value of the characters furnished by the different organs, more will hereafter be stated. FORMATION OF ORDERS AND CLASSES. 6. Even when thus grouped together into genera, however, the num- ber of objects, which the Botanist has to study, remains by far too great for convenience; and he next forms his genera into orders, and combines these orders into classes, according to their respective correspondence and difference in certain characters of a still more general nature. Now in this process he may follow two very different plans; and upon these are founded the two systems of classification which are nowinvogue. One of these is termed the Linnean system, after its founder; or the Artificial system, from its character; the other is termed the Natural system. Inthe Linnean system, a small number of characters—chiefly the number of stamens and pistils—is taken as the standard ; and the whole vegetable kingdom is distributed under classes and orders, according to the corres- pondences and differences among the several genera in these respects,— no regard whatever being had to any other characters. In the Natural system, ai/ the characters of the genera are studied; and those are united into orders, which present the greatest correspondence in the characters that are regarded as of the most importance: on the same ptinciple, the , orders are united into classes. If the former plan be followed, genera most widely differing in their structure and physiological characters are often brought together, and others which are nearly allied are frequently separated to a great extent, so that in fact, it js very common to find, that nothing can be stated as true of all the plants included in a Linnean order, except that they have a similar number of stamens and pistils, On the other hand, in the Natural system, the number of characters in which there is a general agreement among all the plants of a particular INTRODUCTION. 13 order, is so great that, to say that the plant belongs to a certain order, is at once to give the greater part of its description. This is the case also in the highest or most general groups. For instance, to say that a particular species is an Exogen, is at once to make known the structure of its stem, and the mode of its increase,—to express the important fact that it has two cotyledons or seed-leaves,—to render it most probable that the arrangement of the veins in its leaves is reticulated rather than parallel,—and to intimate that the parts of its flowers are likely to be arranged in fives or fours, rather than in threes, CONNEXION OF STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES. 7. There is a point of agreement among the plants brought together in Natural orders, which is of the greatest practical importance. This is that those which agree in structure almost invariably correspond in properties also. For instance, the whole of the Papaveracee or Poppy tribe possesses narcotic properties; all the Rannuculaces or Crowfoot tribe are acrid; whilst all the Malvacez: or Mallow tribe are destitute of unwholesome properties. Thus, when a plant is recognized as a member of a particular Natural order, an almost certain account may be given of its properties,—whether it is likely to be injurious or whole- some, to furnish valuable medicines or important articles of food. It must be remembered, however, that the peculiar properties of the plant do not pervade every portion of it; and that it may hence be possible to obtain wholesome nutriment, even from members of orders most distin- guished for their deleterious properties. Thus the Potato belongs to the order Solanez, which contains the Deadly nightshades, Henbane, and other poisonous plants, but the edible part of it, which is a deposi- tion of starch for an express purpose, is free or nearly so, from the narcotic properties which exist in the stems and leaves. Indeed as a general rule, such depositions of starch may supply wholesome food in any order, more especially if care be taken to free them from any juices _ they may contain: thus the Cassava which furnishes one of the most important articles of food to the inhabitants of many tropical countries, is obtained from a plant of the order Euphorbiacee or spurge tribe, which is distinguished for its very acrid qualities : and these are restricted to the juice expressed from the meal after it has been ground. USE OF THE LINNA:AN SYSTEM. 8. The Linnzan system, however, is not without its advantages, for particular purposes. To a person commencing by himself the study of — Systematic Botany, desirous of making himself acquainted with thenames. __ and characters of the plants he may meet with in his walks, and not _ ambitious of extending his studies to the higher parts of the science, the : r 14 INTRODUCTION. Linnzan system, when applied with the aid of books, possesses facilities which are (at present at least) greatly superior to those afforded by the other, and which are well calculated to encourage a learner. To count the number of stamens and pistils is generally a very easy process ; this at once establishes the class and order; and nothing then remains but to determine the genus and species, which (among the number found in the Northern United States) a little practice in the examination of characters will enable any intelligent person to do with the aid of books in which these are laid down. The habit thus gained of discriminating characters, and of applying terms, is a most valuable preparation for the study of the Natural system, when opportunity presents itself. It must be constantly borne in mind, however, that the utmost use which can be made of the Linnzan system, consists in the assistance it affords in the discovery of the name of an unknown plant, and until this has been made out, the previous determination of its class and order gives no indication of its general structure and properties, (not even making it apparent whether it is an Endogen or an Exogen, a Dicotyledon or a Monocoty- ledon,) since under the same head are grouped genera of the most opposite character. It may be said that it serves a sort of alphabetical index to a book, enabling the reader to turn to any part of it he wishes, by looking out the subject in the order of its first letters, but giving no idea interes of the general scope of the book, nor of the mode in which ib ee ee ee IMPERFECTIONS OF THE LINNEAN SYSTEM. 9. The Linnzan system is liable to many imperfections and difficulties in its application, even in the limited circle of the plants of the United States ; for example, the number of pistils is liable to be altered in any species by the more or less complete adhesion of the carpels; and that of the stamens may also vary in the different species of the same genus, and even among the individuals of the same species, or even (in some instances) among the different flowers of the same stem. The adoption of characters thus liable to vary cannot, therefore, but sometimes lead to confusion. For instance, of the genus Polygonum, of which several species are known by the name of Bistort, Buckwheat, Persicaria, &c., one has always, and two others have occasionally eight stamens, whilst in the rest the number varies from five to ten. As eight seems to be the most regular number, the genus is placed in the class Octandria: and although its styles are sometimes only two in number, it is placed in the order Trigynia, because they are more commonly triple. Now if a student meet with a specimen which has five, six, or ten stamens, he will vainly search for its character among the genera of the Linnean class to which it would seem to belong: and unless he . INTRODUCTION. 15 happen to consult a book which makes special mention of the genus in these several classes, he will be altogether at fault. Suppose that some more knowing Botanist tells him that his plant is a Polygonum, he will again turn to his book, wondering how he could have overlooked it: but he will find the genus in the class Octandria, in spite of the different number of stamens in the specimen before him, and he will then learn that it is placed in the genus Polygonum on account of its strong gene- ral resemblance to other Polygonums, although differing from them in characters which are ordinarily considered as sufficient to establish classes and orders. Again, the greater part of the species of the genus Rhamnus (buckthorn) possesses both stamens and pistils iff the same flower; but the species most generally known in this country on account of its purgative properties is Dicecious, the staminiferous flowers being on one plant, and the pistiliferous on another. The student who meets with it therefore would seek for it in the class Dicecia, where he would be disappointed as before ; since, as in most species of flowers are com- plete, it is placed in the class and order to which the number of its sta- mens and pistils would refer it. 10. Such exceptional cases occur much more frequently than is com- monly supposed. It has been proved that in fourteen divisions of the Linnean system, there are no less than forty three exceptions,—one quar- ter of the whole; and that out of two hundred and seventy four genera ~ of the Northern United States, belonging to eighteen Linnzan sections, there are seventy eight exceptions,—rather more than a quarter. These facts are important, both as preparing the student to meet with such diffi- culties, even in the study of the Linnzan system, which is generally con- sidered so easy of application; and also as showing the imperfection of the system itself, which is of no importance whatever beyond the tem- porary purpose of facilitating the early studies of the Botanical student. In well arranged descriptions of American plants (such as Wood’s Class book of Botany, which may be strongly recommended for this purpose) the most perplexing of these cases are noticed, in such a manner as to prevent the loss of time and labor, in vain attempts at discovering gen- era in wrong classes or species in wrong genera. PRINCIPLES OF THE LINNZZAN SYSTEM. 11. In consequence of the advantages of the Linnean system for a beginner, it is desirable to give an outline of the principles upon which its divisions are founded, which may serve as an introduction to the regular systematic treatises upon the subject. The Phanerogamia or flowering plants are distributed under twenty-three classes, all of which are characterised either by the xwmber, or particular arrange- ment of the stamens. In the first twelve of these, number alone is re- a . 16 INTRODUCTION. garded. Their names are formed by the combination of the Greek numeral expressing the required number, with the termination andria, which has reference to the supposed male office of the stamens in the process of fertilization. CHARACTERS OF THE LINNZAN CLASSES. 12. These classes, therefore, stand simply as shown in the figures repre- sented in the two plates prefixed to these volumes, and to — reference is here particularly made. Crass “1. Monanpria. One stamen. Orders Moissy and Digynia. Crass II. Dianpria. Two stamens. Orders Monogynia, Digynia and Trigynia. Crass II]. Trianpria. Three stamens. Orders Monogynia, Digy- nia and Trigynia. Criass IV. Trerranpria. Four stamens. Orders Monogynia, Digy- nia and Tetragynia. Crass V. Penranpria. Five stamens. Orders Monogynia, Digy- nia, Trigynia, Tetragynia, Pentagynia and Polygynia. Crass VI. Hexanpnria. Six stamens. Orders Monogynia, Digynia,, Trigynia and Polygynia. Crass VI. Hepranprra. cote tome: so tarentuintion “eta Dig- ynia, Tetragynia and Heptagynia. Crass VIII. Ocranprta. Fight st amehe; _-Ofibdes Meany iis, Dig- ynia, Trigynia and Tetragynia. Cuass IX. Enneanpria. Nine stamens. Orders Monogynia, Tri- gynia and Hexagynia. Cuass X. Decanprta. Ten stamens. Orders Monogynia, Digynia, Trigynia, Pentagynia and Decagynia. Crass XI. Dopecanpria. Twelve to nineteen stamens. Orders Mon- ogynia, Digynia, Trigynia, Tetragynia, Pentagynia, Hexagynia and Dodecagynia. Cuiass XII. Icosanpria. Twenty or more stamens inserted into the calyx. Orders Monogynia, Di-Pentagynia and Polygynia. 13. To the last mentioned Class, however, another character belongs ; for in the next Class, Potyanprta, the number of stamens is also twenty or more. They are distinguished by the mode of insertion of the sta- mens, these appearing to arise from the calyx in the former, and from the disk or receptacle in the latter. This distinction which will here- after be shown-to be i important in the Natural system, will be at once understood by comparing a true Rose, Plum, Cherry, or Pear blossom, with a Christmas rose, an Anemone, or a Peony; when the calyx and carolla of the former are pulled off, they carry the stamens with them; INTRODUCTION. 17 but they may be entirely removed from the latter, leaving the stamens at- tached to the disk. These two classes will therefore, appear as in the plate Cuass XIII. Potyanpria. Twenty stamens or more inserted into the receptacle. Orders Monogynia, Digynia, Trigynia, Tetragynia, Penta- gynia, and Polygynia. 14, The next two classes are characterized by peculiarities in the proportional length of the stamens, as well as in their number. Those which are longer than the rest are said to be im power; and the termina- tion dynamia is applied to the number of these, in order to designate their peculiarity. Crass XIV. Dipynamia. our stamens, two longer than the others. Orders Gymnospermia and Angiospermia, Crass XV. Trrrapynamia. Six stamens, four longer than the others. Orders Siliquosa, Siliculosa. 15. The three following classes are characterized by the more or less complete Union of the filaments of the stamens into bundles or brother- hoods; on account of which the termination adelphia is applied to the number of such bundles. Crass XVI. Monapexrura. Stamens united into a single bundle Sorming a tube which surrounds the style. Orders Triandria, Pentandria, Hexandria, Heptandria, Octandria, Decandria, Dodecandria, and Polyandria. Crass XVII. Diapetpuia. Stamens united into two bundles. Orders Pentandria, Hexandria, Octandria, and Decandria. Crass XVIII. Potyapeipnia. Stamens united into several bundles. Orders Decandria and Polyandria. —_- 16. In the next class, it is the anthers which form the tube; and the name applied to it, signifies a growth together. In the succeeding class, the stamens and pistil grow together; and the name gynandria refers to this union of the male organs with the female, the latter being designated by the first syllable, which will presently nt seen to be much employed in the description of the orders. Cuass XIX. Syneenesta. Stamens united ah their eahavi into @ tube. Orders Aiqualis, Superfiua, Frustranea, and Necessaria. Crass XX. Gynanpria. Stamens and pistils grown together. Orders Monandria, Diandria, and Hexandria. 17. The three remaining classes are characterized by the separation of the staminiferous and pistilliferous flowers. The import of the name Moneecia is single-housed, and of Dicecia double housed. Crass XXI. Monazcta. Stamens and pistils on separate flowers, but both growing on the same plant. Orders Monandria, Diandria, Triandria, Tetrandria, Pentandria, Hexandria, Octandria, Icosandria, Perea and Menndaips- ’ 1s INTRODUCTION. Cuass XXII. Dicascta. Stamens and pistils not only on two flowers, but these flowers on two different plants. Orders Monandria, Diandria, Triandria, Tetrandia, Pentandria, Hexandria, Octandria, Enneandria, Decandria, Dodecandria, Icosandria, Polyandria, and Monadelphia. Cuiass XXIII. Poryeamia. Stamens and pistils separated in some Jlowers, united in others, either on the same plant or on two or three different ones. Orders Moneecia and Dicecia. CHARACTERS OF LINNZAN ORDERS. 18. The Orders or sub-divisions of the classes are generally founded upon the number of the styles or (if these be not present) of the stigmas; or upon certain peculiarities of the seed-vessel. In the first thirteen classes the number alone is regarded; and the orders are designated as before, by the Greek numerals, with the termination gynia which refers to the supposed female character of the pistil. Order 1. Monoeynia, One style. 2. Dieynia, Two styles. 3. Trieynia, Three styles. 4, TerraGynia, Four styles, 5. PEnTaGynia, Five styles. 6. Hexaeynia, Siz styles. 9. ENNEAGYNIA, Nine styles, 10. Decaeynia, Ten styles. 11. Dopecaeynia, — Twelve styles. 12. Potyeyni, More than twelve styles. 19, It will be evident from the description of the structure of the pistil, that the number of styles affords no indication of the character of the ovarium. Thus, the ovarium may be formed of many carpels, the divisions between which remain as distinct partitions, whilst the styles and stigmata of all these may have coalesced into one pillar; so that we may have a single style with a many-celled seed-vessel. On the other hand, the walls of the carpels may form but incomplete partitions, so that the cavity of the ovarium is undivided ; whilst the styles and stigmata may be numerous. The structure of the ovarium itself is however a much less variable character than the number of styles, which is liable to alteration in many species (like that of the stamens) through the adhesion or the non-development of some of them. In the class Dipy- NAIA, the characters of the orders are drawn from the structure of the seed-vessel. The first Gymnospermia, or naked-seeded, includes those INTRODUCTION. 19 in which the ovary has four carpels, each enclosing a single seed; and this, when mature fills up the cavity in such a manner, that the wall of the seed-vessel appears like an outer coat to the seeds, which thus do not seem to have any other envelope. The only true naked-seeded plants are the Conrrer& or Pine tribe and its allies, in which the seeds never are enclosed in a seed-vessel. The second Order Angiospermia, includes those Didynamia which have a distinct seed-capsule, usually two celled, each cavity containing many seeds. In the next class, TeTraDYNAMIA, there are also two orders, distinguished by the form of their pod-like seed- vessel; the first Stiiguose, having a long pod; the second Siliculose a short one. The Orders of the classes Monapetpaia, Diapevputa, Potyape.puta, depend upon the number of their stamens, and they have the same names as the first thirteen classes ; the number of stamens, however, being never less than five. The sub-division of the class Syneenesia (as now understood) is rather complex; and it is nearly the same in the Natural system. The Orders of the classes G¥NANDRIA, Monezcra, and Dracta, are distinguished by the number of stamens and are consequently Monandria, Pentandria, §c. Those of the class Poxyeamia are the Monecia, in which the same plant bears staminiferous, pistilline, and complete flowers, and the Diecia in which these occur on different individuals. NATURAL GROUPS IN THE LINNAAN SYSTEM. 20. There are many of these orders which form groups truly natural; that is, which consist of genera having a large number of points of agreement with each other, independently of the characters in which the sub-division is founded. For example, one portion of the class Pentanpria, order Digynia corresponds with the Natural order Um- bellifere, (imcluding the parsley, carrot, hemlock, parsnip, &c.;) the class Trianpei, order Digynia, very nearly corresponds with the natural group of grasses, all these having three stamens and two styles, which combination is not found in any other plants. The Dipynamia, Gym- nospermia, again are the same with the Natural order Labdiate, to which belong the various kinds of mint, thyme, dead-nettle, &c.; and the class TeTRADYNAMIA corresponds with the Natural order Cruciferae, to which belong the mustard, cress, cabbage, turnip, stock, wall-flower, &c. From the predominance of the number ¢hree and its multiples in the parts of the flower of Endogens, we find most of this group in- cluded in the classes Triandria, Hexandria, and Enneandria; whilst the prevalence of the numbers four and five among Exogens causes the classes Tetrandria and Pentandria, Octandria and Decandria, with Icosandria and Polyandria, to contain a very large proportion of that division. But the Linnean system often brings together Exogens and 20 INTRODUCTION. Endogens into close contact; besides breaking up the natural alliances of each, soas to scatter widely apart the members of groups nearly united- IDEA OF NATURAL ARRANGEMENT. 21. The Natural system, on the other hand aims to present an harmonious and consistent view of the vegetable kingdom, by associating into orders those genera which agree in the most numerous and impor- tant characters, and which differ from others in the same. A table of the characters of these orders would therefore resemble the table of contents of a well-arranged book: giving at one glance to a person at all acquainted with the subject, an idea of the mode in which it is treated by the author, and of the relations which the several divisions of it had in his mind; and enabling a person who is entering upon the study of it, to do so with the knowledge that he is not gleaning at random, as if he were reading through a Dictionary, but that every acqui- sition he makes of an individual part, is something toward an acquaint- ance with the plan of thewhole. One more illustration may set this matter in a still clearer light. The reader may be requested to consider this series of treatises as completed according to the original plan; and as consisting of a number of volumes, each devoted to some particular science, but all having a certain degree of connexion with each other. Each volume consists of a series of chapters, in which the sub-divisions of these sciences are respectively treated of, and among which there is a still closer degree of connexion. Every chapter again, is made up of a number of paragraphs, each intended to contain one or more im- portant facts, the knowledge of which is in itself useful, but which can only be fully understood when read continuously with the preceding and following paragraphs. We shall further suppose that the subject of every paragraph could be concisely expressed by a single word. Now we will imagine these paragraphs all printed on separate slips of paper, with their appropriate titles to be given to a man of science, with a request that he would arrange them for publication. His first idea might perhaps be, to place them in alphabetical order, so as to form a kind of Dictionary ; this being the most easy method of fulfilling his task, and also having the advantage when complete, of admitting very easy reference to any required subject. But what idea would the reader of such a volume gain of the plan which the original author had in his mind? Or what connected and harmonious scheme of knowledge could he frame from them, unless he digested and arranged them in his own mind, in the manner in which we shall suppose our man of science to proceed to do? He might commence in two ways :—either by separating the whole into heaps, according to the subjects to which they respectively refer, e.g. Mechanics, Chemistry, Geology, Botany, > INTRODUCTION. 21 Zoology, &c., and then arranging these singly; or by endeavoring to join the separate paragraphs together, according to their obvious con- nection. He will probably find a combination of these two methods the most advantageous; and by a careful examination of each single paragraph in its relations to the whole, he may at last succeed in pro- ducing a series of connected treatises, methodically arranged according to their respective subjects, and regularly divided into chapters very nearly or even exactly upon the plan of the original author. Now the alphabetical arrangement would bear a close parallel with the Linnean system of Botanical classification; whilst the latter distribution,—the one evidently most calculated to convey to the learner a connected rather than a desultory knowledge of the several objects of his pursuit may not unaptly represent the Natural system. VALUE OF A NATURAL SYSTEM. 22. It is by seeking for the latter only, that any of those general principles can ever be attained, which give their chief value to the facts of science, and which lead us higher and higher in the contemplation of that almighty Power and boundless Wisdom by which the Universe was framed ; for the Natural system would be but a table of contents of the yegetable Kingdom, arranged on the plan of its divine Author. In or- der to attain it, the Botanist requires to become acquainted, not only with all the tribes of vegetables at present existing on the surface of the globe, but with the forms and characters of those which have once ex- isted, since—it cannot be doubted—all these constituted parts of the one general scheme, without the knowledge of which it would be impossible to reconstruct it. Now it is well known to the Botanist, that a very large number of the species of plants with which he is somewhat ac- quainted, have been so imperfectly examined and described, that their true place in the system cannot be determined; and there is good rea- son to believe that there are many more of which he is totally ignorant. Here therefore are abundant causes for the imperfection of any natural system which can be at present framed; and should these ever be re- moved by long continued labor and research, there will yet remain the other causes resulting from the impossibility of becoming fully acquaint-’ ed with the characters of the races which have existed in former periods of the earth’s history, and which have been swept completely from its face. Of these, some remains are occasionally discovered, sufficiently perfect to excite the liveliest interest and curiosity, by showing that races once flourished which fill up many of the wide gaps existing between ' those with whose characters we are now familiar, and which if we knew more of them, would explain many things that are at present most per- plexing. ~ ‘ baa 22 INTRODUCTION. LINNZAN NATURAL SYSTEM. 23. Some of the strongest upholders of the Linnzean system are influ- enced by their veneration for its Author ; whose fame, however will rest on a foundation much more durable than this. It is not generally known that the advantages of the Natural method have never been more highly appreciated than they were by Linnzeus himself. When he framed an artificial system for the convenient arrangement of plants, it was with the very purpose for which the temporary employment of it has been now recommended,—namely to facilitate that acquaintance with the vegetable Kingdom, which must be gained before a Natural method can be framed. Linneeus himself gave a sketch of the Natural system, explaining the principles upon which it might be expected to rest, and he pronounced the investigation of the natural affinities to be the great object of his studies, and the most important part of the science. He considered the artificial system as a temporary expedient which however necessary at that day, would inevitably give place to the system of nature, so soon as its fundamental principles should be discovered. The elucidation of the latter, he said is the first and ultimate aim of Botanists; to this end the labor of the greatest Botanists should be diligently directed; and the merest fragments of this system should be carefully studied. Though not,then fully discovered, he spoke of the pursuit of it as held in high estimation by the wisest Botanists, and as being little encouraged by the less learned. “ For a long time,” he adds, “I have labored to establish it; I have made many discoveries, but have not been able to perfect it; yet while I live I shall continue to labor for its completion. In the mean time I have published what I have been able to discover ; and whosoever shall resolve the few plants which still remain shall be my Magnus Apollo. Those are the greatest Botanists who are able to correct, aug- ment, and perfect this method: which those who are unqualified should not attempt.” Those therefore who priding themselves upon their being disciples of Linneus continue to employ his temporary and artificial sys- tem of classification, to the exclusion of one founded upon Natural prin- ciples, i imagining that they are upheld by his authority, quite : mistake the views of their great master, and sadly misrepresent his opinions. * 24. The knowledge of the vegetable kingdom obtained by Linnzeus, however, was far too small in amount, to enable him to frame a Natural system upon sound principles. The number of species known to him was probably not an eighth part of those with which Botanists are now acquainted; and no arrangement, therefore, could be formed, which was not marked by many wide and unsightly gaps. Further, so little was at that time known of the internal arrangement of the organs of plants, that even the distinction between the two principal forms of struc- ture in the stem,—evident and well marked as it now appears,—was INTRODUCTION. 23 not then understood. Nevertheless, with that sagacity which so remark. ably characterized him, Linnzeus succeeded in grouping together genera into orders, which are even now regarded as, for the most part, very natural assemblages; that is, as containing plants really allied to each other in their most important characters, and differing from those of other orders in the same. But of the best mode of arranging these orders he was necessarily ignorant, since the most important characters were not then understood. The great progress which has been made since his time, in the structural and physiological departments of Botanical science, has done much to place classification on a more certain basis; yet there is still much wanting before Botanists shall be generally agreed on the prin- ciples which shall regulate the division and subdivision of the vegetable kingdom. In the following outline, it has been deemed advisable to adopt the classification of De Candolle, being the one which is most in use at the present time; and the principles upon which it is founded will therefore now be explained. PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL ARRANGEMENT, 25. It may be remarked, however, in the first place, as a principle common to all systems of classification which profess to be natural, that the different values which are attached to the various characters furnished by the several organs of plants should be estimated by the degree in which they respectively indicate important similarities or differences of general conformation. It often happens that attention to one or two characters may afford a considerable amount of knowledge of the whole; because those characters are found to be inseparably connected with others. An instance of this has been already given in regard to the primary division between Exogens and Endogens {§ 65) and it may be useful to illustrate it further by reference to the animal kingdom. If, for example, we meet with an animal covered with feathers, we at once know a great deal of its internal structure and economy. It is a vertebrated animal, possessing a jointed back bone and complete internal skeleton: it has all five senses, its blood is red, it breathes air, its temperature is high, its young are produced from eggs, _ it walks upon two legs, &c. Here we are at once informed that this unknown animal possesses all the characters peculiar to the class of birds ; since no other animals than birds possess a covering of feathers, which is inseparably connected with the whole plan of their structure and economy. In the same manner the classification of the Mammalia, (Quadrupeds) according to their teeth, proposed by Linnzus, proves to be a very natural one, although founded upon a single set of characters; because the form and number of the teeth vary with the nature of the food on which the animal is intended to live; and to make 24 INTRODUCTION. use of this, a certain form of digestive apparatus is adapted ; as well as a certain kind of general structure, furnishing the instruments by which the food is obtained: so that these may be known to a great extent from the inspection of the teeth alone. In like manner, the Botanist, whilst founding his arrangement upon the whole group of characters which each plant exhibits, endeavors to select those, as marks for dis- tinguishing the several divisions, which are at once easily recognized, and which serve as the best key (so to speak) to those which are seated within. Such characters are natural, then, in proportion as they indicate general conformity or difference of structure; thus the distribution of the veins of the leaves,—a character easily recognized,—will in general serve to distinguish Exogens and Dicotyledons from Endogens and Monocotyledons ; and it is therefore a very natural character, serving as a key to all those which are indicated by these terms. On the other hand, the number of stamens and pistils in a flower is a purely artificial character, since it gives no further certain information of the general structure of the plant. 26. Another general principle of Natural classification must next be pointed out. When a number of Plants or Animals are associated, on account of their general resemblance to each other, into a Natural group, it will be found that the characters in which they agree, are presented by some members of the group much more prominently than by others; and that in some they are occasionally so much wanting, that these can seem to be more easily included in any other groups. Now, those members of a natural group which most strikingly present a union of all the characters by which it is distinguished, are spoken of as its types ; and those in which these characters are less obvious are termed aberrant members of the group. It is by these, in fact, that natural groups are connected with one another ; for it will generally be found that in the aberrant members of one group, its characters become (as it were) gradually shaded off, until they almost blend with those of the next. To revert to an illustration; where the countries occupied by two nations are not separated by any marked natural boundary, (as a broad river or high chain of mountains,) the peculiar characters of these nations, which may be regarded as most strongly exhibited in their respective chief towns become gradually blended towards the border where they meet, so that the transition from one to the other is by no means so abrupt, as if the traveller were conveyed at once from the metropolis of each to that of the other. Every natural group then, may be regarded as a sphere, surrounded by other spheres—each representing another group,—which touch it at certain points, the type of each will occupy its centre, and the aberrant members will be disposed in various posi- INTRODUCTION. 25 tions around it, in proportion as they lose és peculiar characters and approach other groups. For example, the group of Lizards is inter- mediate between that of Serpents and that of Tortoises. There are some Lizards in which the body and tail are greatly lengthened, whilst the legs are shortened, so that the form of the Snake is approached ; and in the common Slow-worm or Blind-worm, the external form is completely that of a snake, whilst beneath the skin two pairs of small though perfectly formed legs may be found on careful examination. This, then, is an aberrant form, situated just on the border of both groups, and scarcely having a certain claim to a place in either. On the other side, the Lizards are connected with the Tortoises by a species commonly known under the name of the Allegator-Tortoise, or Snap- ping-Turtle, which may be considered as a Tortoise with a long Lizard- like neck, legs, and tail, or, as a Lizard with a Turtle-shell on its back. The Lizards are connected, again, with Birds (to which they would not seem to haye the slightest possible relation,) by means of a very curious animal not now existing, which had the general structure of the Lizards ; ‘but which had the fore-legs converted into wings like those of a bird; and which seems to have been covered with something intermediate between scales and feathers. Many similar instances will present them- selves in the study of the vegetable kingdom. 27, Hence when it is stated that a Plant or Animal belongs toa par- ticular group, it is by no means necessarily implied that it possesses alZ the characters which are considered as marking that group. Thus,—to revert to an instance just now employed in illustration,—the structure of the feathers, which are generally so characteristic of the class of Birds, is greatly modified in some of the species which approach nearest to other groups; in the Emu, for example { one of the Ostrich tribe) the feathers are little else than stiff branching hairs; and in the Penguin, those covering the fin-like wings resemble scales. So, again, in the first natural group of plants,—the Ranunculus or Crow-foot tribe,—there are some species which have the parts of the flower arranged in ¢hrees as in Eudogens; yet they are not really such, for their stems are Exogenous, the veining of their leaves is netted, and their embryo is dicotyledonous. Again the common Arum maculatum (Cuckow-pint) has reticulated leaves ; but it is not an Exogen, because its stem is Eudogenous. and its embryo monocotyledonous. And the pond-weed ( Potamogeton, ) has the parts of its flowers arranged in fours; yet it does not belong to Exogens, since its leaves are parallel-veined and its embryo i is monocotyledonous. 28. In considering the several characters afforded by the varieties in | the structure of Plants, it will be convenient to follow the same order as" that which has been adopted in describing that structure. The elemen- tary tissues _— afford any means of distinction, except in regard to 26 INTRODUCTION, the primary divisions,—the presence of spiral vessels being on the whole characteristic of flowering Plants (which have been hence termed Vas- culares); and their absence being nearly constant in Cryptogamia (which have been hence termed Cellulares.) There are some of the inferior Phanerogamia, however, in which no spiral vessels can be detected ; and in the Ferns which stand at the head of the Cryptogamia, modifications of them may be found. However, if on examining any portion of the fabric of an unknown plant, spiral vessels were distinctly seen this might be regarded as sufficiently indicating that the specimen belonged to the higher of these two groups. The peculiarity of the woody fibre in the Conifere and allied: orders, together with the absence of the dot- ted-ducts or special Sap vessels, is characteristic of that portion of the Phanerogamic division; but excepting in this instance, no use can be made of the varieties of the elementary tissues, in defining the subdivis- ions of the classes of Plants. 29. The structure and mode of increase of the stem afford as already stated, the means of establishing the soundest division of the Phaneroga- mia: and the two groups of Exogens and Endogens are universally recog- nized as natural classes. Between these, however, there are several connecting links—some Exogens exhibiting in their stem no separation into annual layers,—and some Eudogens, presenting an approach to the Exogenous division of the kingdom. One small order ( Calycanthee) is known by the presence of four incomplete centres of vegetation surround- ing the stem almost cut into four quarters; whilst a square stem is uni- versal in the Dead-nettle tribe. In some orders, such as the Cactee (Prickly-pear-tribe) snd Euphorbiacee (Spurge tribe), the quantity of cel- lular tissue usually so much predominates that the stems are soft and succulent ; but this is not always the case, some genera having stems of the ordinary character. No very positive characters can in general therefore, be drawn from the structure of the stem, in dividing the clas- ses into sub-classes and orders. Nor do the roots afford any better guide; since the modifications of form of which they are susceptible are very few, and they are by no means constant in particular groups. Asa general rule, however, it may be observed that neither bulb nor rhizoma are found in Exogens, and that they are confined to a few orders among Eudogens. 30. The leaves are subject to considerable modifications, both in posi- tion, form and structure, which are very useful in classification. The general differences among the leaves of Exogens, Endogens and Acro- gens have already been adverted to. The relative position of the leaves, as whether alternate, opposite, or verticillate, is often a very important character, but in regard to this, as well as to other characters, it often INTRODUCTION. 27 happens that it is of much greater value in some orders than it is in others. Thus in Lamiacee (Dead-nettles) they are uniformly opposite: so that no plant can belong to the order, in which they are alternate or verti- cillate. In Urticacee (the Nettle tribe,) on the other hand, they are constantly alternate ; so that no opposite Jeaved plant can belong to the order. In this manner the common Dead-Nettles and Stinging-Nettles may -be at once known from each other. But in many others, one arrangement is prevalent, and yet the other sometimes occurs. The degree of division of the leaves, again is subject to considerable uncer- tainty in many orders, from causes already mentioned; yet, in others notwithstanding a constant form is maintained; thus, leaves with teeth or jagged edges are never found in the pa Cinchonacee. (from which the Bovgvian bark is supplied) and they are very rare in Endogens. The particular characters afforded by the veining of leaves are much more constant, than those derived from their form; and it is probable that, as they have only been recently attended to, much assistance will be obtained in classification from an increased knowledge of them. A character which would not at first sight appear of much importance, is afforded by the presence or absence of those little dots in the leaves, which are reservoirs of oily secretions; yet these being connected as it would seem with some important differences in the general economy, are extremely characteristic of certain Natural orders, such as Myrtacee (the Myrtle tribe,) and Awrantiacea (the Orange tribe,) serving to dis- tinguish all their members from those of other orders nearly allied to them. In other orders, however, there are some genera with, and others without these pellucid dots. The cleat or milky character of the juices of the leaves and. stalks, indicating as it does, the absence or presence of certain secretions which are characteristic of particular orders, will often prove of much use in distinguishing their members. At the base of the leaf-stalks are often found little leafy appendages (which are in fact leaves, in an imperfect state of development) termed stipules; the presence or absence of these frequently enables the Botanist to distinguish the plants of two allied orders, of which one pos- sesses them, whilst the other does not, and certain peculiarities in them, are occasionally very characteristic of particular groups. 31. Passing on to the flowers, we first have to notice the characters afforded by the bracts; these are seldom of any use in distinguishing ‘orders, on account of their constant variation within the limits of each; but they are often valuable in separating genera and species. The calyx is used in a variety of ways to distinguish orders, but the charac- _ ters it affords are far from being of equal or uniform importance throughout. The number of sepals is sometimes a very useful and — constant mark of a particular order; thus, in Crucifera, the Cabbage 28 INTRODUCTION. and Turnip tribe they are always four, and in Papaveracee, the Poppy tribe always two; but in many orders it is extremely variable. The equal or differing size of the sepals is another character of great im- portance in some cases, but not to be regarded in others. Again, the union of the sepals by the adhesion of their edges is a character to which great value may usually be attached; when this adhesion unites all the sepals, the calyx is commonly said to be monosepalous (single-sepalled ;) but the term gamosepalous, expressing the union or adhesion of the sepals is to be preferred. A still more important character is the degree of adhesion of the calyx to the organs it includes. Where it arises immediately from the disk or expanded top of the flower stalk, and where the corolla, stamens and pistil are quite distinct from it, arising by themselves from the disk, the calyx is said to be inferior to the ovary, or non-adherent to it. But where the calyx seems to spring from the top of the ovary or seed-vessel, instead of beneath it, it is called superior; this conformation is due to the adhesion of the calyx to the wall of the ovarium, so that it forms a tube completely enclosing it, as in the Rose, Apple, &c. In some plants the calyx is altogether absent; and then the general rule is that the corolla is likewise deficient. Such plants are said to be Achlamydeous, the essential parts of their flowers being destitute of envelope. In the Composite, however, which possesses a corolla, the calyx is present in an undeveloped form, constituting the down of pappus, which surrounds the bottom of the corolla, and is - 32. In regard to the number and regularit: - of the parts of the corolla, nearly the same may be said as of the calyx. These characters are valuable in some instances and not in others. The separation or adhesion of the petals, constituting what is commonly known as the polypetalous or monopetalous corolla is often a character of first-rate importance. Still, from the cause formerly mentioned, it is liable to some uncertainty, and ought not on that account therefore to be trusted too implicitly. Sometimes no corolla is to be found, the calyx still being present, and the plant is then said to be Avetalous (destitute of petals,) or Monochlamydeous (having but one envelope). This is a character, however, on which great reliance cannot be placed, since apetalous genera frequently present themselves, in orders which usually possess complete flowers,—an occurrence which is less common amongst monopetalous Exogens, than among those which have separate petals, so that the character is of more value in the former than in the latter. CHARACTERS OF NATURAL SYSTEM. 33, When our attention is directed to the more essential parts of the flowering system,—the stamens and pistil,—we meet with some char- INTRODUCTION. 29 acters on which more constant reliance can be placed; but these are not among the most obvious, such as the inexperienced Botanist would first attend to. For example, the number of stamens is a character to which little importance can be attached; since this is liable to vary extremely among the genera of ae every order,—in many cases among the species of the same genus,—not unfrequently also among individuals of the same species,—and even in different flowers on the same plant. Yet there are particular orders, in which the num- ber of stamens is very constant throughout, and is very characteristic of them. The most important characters afforded by the stamens are drawn from their mode of origin from the lower part of the flower. They may arise, like the sepals and petals, from the disk, beneath the ovary; in this case they are said to be hypogynous (designating their origin from beneath the female part of the flower.) But it may happen that the sepals and stamens arise together, (these parts being opposite in a regular flower, whilst the petals alternate with them so as not to prevent their adhesion,) and that they adhere for a part of their length, so that the stamens appear to arise from the calyx, and come away with it when it is detached; in this case or when they adhere in a similar manner to the petals, they are said to be perigynous, having their origin arownd the female organ. Lastly, when the calyx embraces the ovarium, it also closely envelopes the stamens which are not freed from it except at the top of the seed-vessel ; in this case, the stamens, appearing to arise from the top of the ovarium are said to be epigynous, being seated upon the female organ. Peculiarities in the mode in which the anthers open to disperse the pollen are sometimes characteristic of particular orders ; thus the Berberry and Laurel tribes have anthers bursting by valves; and the Heaths have anthers opening by pores. But such peculiarities are found in other genera, amongst orders which do not possess them, and ora must not therefore be implicitly relied on. 34. Of all natural characters, those furnished by the structure of the central parts of the flower are perhaps subject to the fewest exceptions; yet these are not such as are the most evident to the ordinary observer. On the number of styles, as already stated, little reliance can be placed for the establishment of important distinctions, but as it is less liable to vary than is that of the stamens, it may often be useful in the separation of genera. A much more decisive character is afforded by the degree of adhesion among the carpels; when they remain distinct from each other, the ovary is said to be apocarpous (carpels apart ;) and when they are compactly united, it is termed syncarpous (carpels together.) There are few Natural orders in which one or other of these conditions does not prevail, to the entire exclusion of the other; so that plants which ° (Oe Sens revemblance in imagen for but differ in this, mt 30 INTRODUCTION. at once referred to their proper groups. The position of the ovary in respect to the calyx has been already adverted to; this character is generally expressed by the terms inferior or superior ovary. The presence or absence of partitions in the ovaries is a very important dis- tinction. An ovary may be one-celled, because it consists of but a single carpel; or being syncarpous, it may contain an undivided cavity, from the obliteration of the partitions, or dissepiments, originally formed by the walls of the several adhering carpels. In this case the attachment of the ovules, or placenta, is either central, the ovules being clustered around a central column, or parietal, where they are attached to the outer wall. Varieties of structure of this nature are very important in - distingnishing orders. A peculiar enlargement of the receptacle which sometimes expands between the bases of the carpels so as to separate them more or less completely as in the Strawberry, is often very char- acteristic of particular orders. The ripened ovary or fruit exhibits numerous and remarkable differences in its form, substance, and mode of dehiscence (or its manner of bursting when ripe;) but these do not usually receive much attention from Botanists; since although there are a few orders which are charicterized by a particular kind of fruit, most others present numerous varieties among their different genera, 35. Many valuable characters are drawn from the seed, both in its early and mature conditions. The number of ovules—that is to say, whether they are definite or indefinite—is frequently an important difference; still in some orders, there are genera nearly allied, in onc of which the number is definite, whilst it is indefinite in the other. The position of the ovules is more essential than their number ;—the chief distinctions are between those which, rising upright “from the base of the cavity, are termed erect ; and those, which hanging from its top, are called pendulous. Between these two conditions, however, there are other intermediate ones. Such a difference in the position of the ovules often serves to mark a distinct line of separation between the plants of two groups that are otherwise nearly allied. In the perfect seed, the number of cotyledons is a character of primary importance, for distin- guishing the two great classes of Phanerogamia, as already several times stated. Even this, however, is subject to occasional exceptions, for there are Endogenous plants with two cotyledons and some Exogens with only one or even none, whilst again, some Exogens have several, As a means of distinguishing orders the presence or absence of a separate albumen is a character of great value, especially when the embryo bears a very small proportion to it in amount. Where, how- ever the embryo and albumen are nearly equal in size, the character is of less importance; so that it is not uncommon to meet, in the same genera, of which the embryo alone fills the seed, and with others in INTRODUCTION. 31 which a part is occupied by albumen; whilst in the orders especially characterized by it, there is probably not a single genus in which it is absent. It must be remembered that albumen exists in all seeds at an early period of their formation; and that the subsequent difference will depend upon the degree in which it is absorbed by the embryo. 36. The student who has given attention to the preceding statements, is not unlikely to feel some perplexity, on account of the constant un- certainty which has been stated to attend the value of the several characters that have been enumerated. But as he proceeds further, he will find that this uncertainty is greater in appearance than in reality ; and that it necessarily results from the properties of a Natural group, as already described. In dividing the vegetable kingdom in an artificial method, it seems very easy to lay down a small number of characters as the standard ; and to bring together, or to separate plants, according to their conformity or variety in these. But, as has been already shown, when we come to apply this plan, numerous difficulties are met with, in consequence of the differences which are of constant occurrence, among plants belonging to the same genus or even to the same species (§ 9;) so that even here the Botanist must be guided by general resem- blance. Now, although it is quite true that no single characters, when traced throughout the vegetable scale, can be relied on, as indicating the natural affinities of plants, yet experienced Botanists have little difficulty in defining each order, by a certain combination of characters, which are peculiar to it, and not unfrequently, the plants belonging to one order may be separated from those of all other groups, by some evident and well-marked peculiarity. - DE CANDOLLE’S CLASSIFICATION. 37. On the foregoing principles, the class of Exogens is divided by De Candolle in the following manner :— . The first group consists of those, of which the flowers possess both calyx and corolla, and in which the petals of the latter are distinct, and which are therefore Polypetalous. This group is divided into two sub- classes, according to the mode of insertion of the stamens. Sus-cuass I. Thalamiflore. Polypetalous Exogens, in which the stamens arise from the disk,—that is, are hypogynous. Sometimes the stamens adhere slightly to the sides of the ovary, but they are never epigynous, nor perigynous. (§ 32.) : | Sus-ciass Il. Calycifore. Polypetalous Exogens in which the stamens arise from the calyx or corolla,—that is, are perigynous. In the next sub-class, the flowers still possessing both calyx and corolla, have the latter formed of united petals, or are Monopetalous. 32 INTRODUCTION. In this division the position of the stamens is not regarded as a primary character. Sus-ciass III. Corolliflore. Monopetalous Exogens. Tn the lowest group, the corolla is always absent, making the flower Apetalous; and the calyx is not uniformly present. “This character is regarded as sufficiently marking the group. Sus-ciass IV. Monochlamydee. Apetalous Exogens. The object of this classification is to proceed from what are con- sidered the most perfectly organized Exogens, to those which are least so. Thus all the parts are present and distinct from each other in Thalamiflore; other things remaining the same, the stamens adhere to the perianth in Calyciflore ; the petals join together in Corolliflore ; and in Monochlamydee first the corolla disappears, and then, among the most imperfect orders the calyx ceases to be developed. 38. The class of Enpoeens is not divided by De Candolle into any Sub-classes. It will, however, be convenient to consider their orders as characterized by the completeness or incompleteness of their flowers. The Complete Endogens may be again sub-divided into those with a superior, and those with an inferior ovarium. The orders having Incom- plete flowers, are separated into those in which a cluster of flowers is inclosed in a single large bract, termed a Spathe, which is frequently colored (as in the Arum tribe 3) and those i in which the eatin of each May Apple MATERIA MEDICA BOTANICA. BERBERIDACE®, Berberids. No. 49. PODOPHYLLUM PELTATUM. May Appie. Mandrake, Wild Lemon, Duck’ s-foot, &c. Geog. Position. United States. Quality. Insipid. Power. Cathartic, narcotic. Use. Bilious and intermittent fevers. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Classification. Orver BERBERIDACEA. Linnean Classification. Crass XIII. Polyandria. Orver Monogynia. Avrnorities.—Lin. Sp. Pl. 722. Willd. Sp. Pl. IL. 1141. Parsh. Flor. N. A. I. 366. Lind. Flor. Med. 13. Bigelow, Med. 23. Barton, Veg. Mat. Med. TI. 25. Raf. Med. Flor. II. 59. U.S. Disp. 576. Ec. Disp. U.S. 312. Loud. Encyc. Pl. 460. Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med. 193. Pereira, Mat. Med. IT. 760. Griff. Med. Bot. 115. Carson, Illust. Med. Bot. I. 18. Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 711. Beach, Fam Phys. 666. Howard, Bot. Med. II. 280. Mat. Med. 158. Henry, Med. Herb. 188. Wood, Class-Book, 152. Genus PODOPHYLLUM. From the Greek zrovis, foot, and gu'iior, leaf, in allusion to the long, firm petioles >! on which the leaves are placed, resembling the webbed feet of aquatic birds. Synonymes.—Podophylle de peltate (Fr.), Schildblattriger Entenfuss (Ger.), Entenruss, Fluss blatt (Dutch). Tue Essentian Cyaracters. — Caiyx. Sepals three —four~six, imbricate in two rows, often reinforced by petaloid scales. ae Corotia. Hypogynous. Petals one to three times as many as the sepals, and opposite to them. ne Ore 1 PODOPHYLLUM PELTATUM. Stamens. As many or twice as many as the petals, and op- posite to them. Anthers generally opening by recurved valves, extrorse. Ovary. One-celled, solitary, simple. Style often lateral. Stigma often lateral or peltate. uit. Berried or capsular. ps. One or few, attached to the bottom of the cell, or any, attached to lateral placente. Tue Seconpary CHaracrTers. ‘& Popornyiium. Culyx of three sepals, caducous. Corolla _ six—nine-petalled. Stamens numerous, with linear anthers. Berry one-celled, crowned with the single stigma. Calyx three-leaved, minute. Corolla five-to-nine-petalled. Stigma large, crenate, sessile. Berry one-celled, crowned with the stigma, large, many-seeded. Columella one-sided. Tue Spreciric Cuaracters. PoporuyLium re.ratum. Leaves peltate,lobed. Flowers one. Stem round, sheathed at base, erect, dividing into two round leaf-stalks, between which grows the flower. _ Stem terminated with two peltate polinate leaves. Flowers single, inserted in the fork formed by the petioles of the leaves. Sometimes the plant is three-leaved, and sometimes the flower is inserted on the side of one of the petioles. ‘Tue Arririctan Cuaracrers. Cuass Ponyanpria. Stamens twenty or more arising from the receptacle (hypogynous). Orper Monocynta. Ovary simple. Calyx three-sepalled. Leaves often peltate. Flower solitary. : NATURAL HISTORY. The May Appx is among our more curious and interest- ing plants. It is indigenous, herbaceous, and the only spe- cies belonging to the genus. The plant is extensively dif- fused throughout the United States, and especially common in Western New York. It is, however, everywhere found in abundance, on congenial soils, from the State of Maine to the Mexican Gulf, and from the Atlantic seacoast to the Ore- gon mountains. It grows luxuriantly in moist, shady woods, and in low marshy grounds. It is p ‘opagated by its creeping root, and is often found in large patches, The flowers appear about the end of May and beginning of June, and the fruit PODOPHYLLUM PELTATUM. ripens in the latter part of September, at which time the leaves wither and fall off. The fruit is edible, and though very agree- able to some persons, it is to others extremely unpleasant. _ The leaves are poisonous, and its medical virtues are wholly confined to the root, which is said to be most efficient when collected after the falling of the leaves. ; The root (rhizoma) of the PoporuyLLuM PELTaTUM is per ennial, creeping, usually several feet in length, about one quarter of an inch thick, of a brown color externally, smooth- jointed and furnished with radicles at the joints. The stem is about a foot high, round, sheathed at base, erect, dividing into two round leaf-stalks, between which grows the flower. Each petiole bears a large smooth peltate palmate leaf, deep- ly divided into five—seven lobes, which are each two-parted and dentate at the end. ‘They are often peltate, but generally separate at base quite to the petiole. The flower is stalked, drooping or nodding, white, with a three-leaved, caducous calyx, which is oval, obtuse, concave, and deciduous. The corolla is of about six petals, often more, which are obovate, concave, white, fragrant and curiously reticulated with veins. The stamens are from thirteen to twenty, shorter than the petals, with oblong yellow anthers of twice the length of the fila- ments. ‘The stigma is sessile, and rendered irregular on its surface by numerous folds or convolutions. The fruit is about the size of a plum, crowned with the persistent stigma, and containing a sweetish fleshy pulp, in which about twelve ovate seeds are imbedded. It ripens early, and when ripe it is of a yellowish color, diversified by round brownish spots. eet CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. Poporuyiium has been examined with a view to determine its constituents, and it has been found to contain resin, starch, and a peculiar vegetable substance crystallizable in white silky tufts. There has also been obtained from it a peculiar prin- ciple to which the name of Podophyjlin has been given. It is in pale, brown, shining scales, unalterable in the air, very spar- ingly soluble in cold water, much more soluble in boiling wa- ter, soluble also in ether, and freely so in boiling alcoh its. has neither acid nor alkaline properties. Nitric acid dissolves _ it with effervescence, producing a rich, deep-red color. Its _ taste at first is not very decided, in consequence of its sparing solubility, but becomes at length very bitter and permanent, and its alcoholic solution is _—* bitter. It may be ob- eee me aes hes PODOPHYLLUM PELTATUM. tained by boiling the root with quicklime in water, straining the decoction, precipitating the lime with sulphate of zinc, evaporating the clear solution to the consistence of an ex- tract, treating this with cold alcohol of 0.817, filtering and evaporating the alcoholic solution, and treating the residue with boiling distilled water, which deposits the bitter principle on cooling. The dried root is in pieces about two lines in thickness, with swelling, broad, flattened joints at short intervals. It is much wrinkled lengthwise, is yellowish or reddish-brown ex- ternally, and furnished with fibres of a similar but somewhat paler color. The fracture is short and irregular, and the inter- nal coloris whitish. The powder is light yellowish-gray, resem- bling that of jalap. The root in its aggregate state is nearly inodorous, but in powder has a sweetish and not unpleasant smell. The taste is at first sweetish, afterwards bitter, muceous, and slightly acrid. The decoction and tincture are bitter. The PopopuHyLLUm PELTATUM is always considered an ac- tive and certain cathartic, producing copious liquid discharges without much griping or other unpleasant effects. It has a peculiar effect upon all the secretions and excretions, stimu- lating them to a healthy action, and often answers the pur- pose of removing obstructions without any bad effects what- ever. In some cases it has given rise to nausea and even vomiting, but the same result is occasionally experienced from every active cathartic. In its action upon the bowels its oper- ation resembles that of jalap, but it is rather slower, and by some it is supposed to be more drastic. It extends its influ- ence through every part of the system, touching every gland when given in small doses and repeated every two or three hours, while large doses evacuate and exhaust the system. The cases to which May Appte is particularly adapted are of an inflammatory character, especially at the commence- ment, where brisk purging is required. It is very highly spoken of by many eminent writers, who have tested. its eff- cacy, and they recommend its employment in bilious fever and hepatic congestions. For these purposes it has been much used in various parts of the country, and with the most happy effects. In dropsical affections, and in rheumatic and scrofulous complaints, the supertartrate of potassa is a useful addition, by which the action of both is reciprocally improved. It is crise as a vermifuge in teaspoonful doses, and re- Some physicians recommend the powdered root as an es- charotic to cleanse foul and ill-conditioned ulcers, and dispose them to heal, and to promote the exfoliation or removal of ca- rious or rotten bones. The powder should be sprinkled on the affected part once in from two to five days. It is also said to destroy proud-flesh ——? injury to the sound parts. iP We 50. = Mezereon. ; - THYMELACEZ. Daphnads. No. 50. DAPHNE MEZEREUM. Mezerron. Spurge Olive. Geog. Position. Europe. Quality. Sweetish, acrid. Power. Stimulant, diaphoretic. Use. Chronic cutaneous diseases, rheumatism. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Classification. Orver THYMELACEZ. Linnean Classification. Cuass VIII. Octandria. Orver Monogynia. Autuorirtes.— Lin. Sp. Pl. 509. Willd. Sp. Pl. II. 415. Woody. Med. Bot. 23. Lind. Flor. Med.324. Whitlaw, Med. Disc. 70. Lond. Disp. 322. U.S. Disp. 478. Ec. Disp. U.S. 155. Loud. Encyc. Pl. 322. Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med. 366. Thomson, Mat. Med. 796, *95. Pereira, Mat. Med. II. 268. Griff. Med. Bot. 560. Carson, Ilust. Med. Bot. IL 26. Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 865. Wood, Class-Book, 481. Genus DAPHNE. The Greek name of the Laurel, for the nymph Daphne, who, it is said, was g Changed into a laurel, which some species of this genus resemble. Tee Syxonrmes.— Laureole gentille (Fr.), Kellerhals (Ger.), Mezereo (It.), Mezereon (Sp.), Pepperbompje (Dutch), Tibast (Swed.), Kielderhals (Dan.), Wyleze lyko (Pol.), Mezerao (Port.). Tue Essentian Cuaracters. sree Catyx. Free, tubular, colored, limb four- (rarely five-) cleft, imbricated in estivation. aoe Sramens. Definite, inserted into the calyx and opposite to its lobes when equal to them in number, often twice as many. ae Ovary. Solitary, with one ovule. Style one. Stigma undi- vided. ihe | eas Frorr. Hard, dry, drupaceous. Albumen wanting or thin. — 4 ae DAPHNE MEZEREUM. Tue Seconpary CHARACTERS. Darune. Calyx four-cleft, marcescent. Limb spreading. Stamens eight, included in calyx-tube. Style one. Drupe one-seeded. Calyx wanting. Corolla four-cleft, withering, including the stamens. Drupe one-seeded. _. Tue Speciric Cuaracrers. Darune Mezerevm. Leaves deciduous, lanceolate, in ter- minal tufts, entire, sessile. Flowers sessile, about three from each lateral bud. Calyx hypocrateriform. Segments ovate, spreading. Stamens inserted in two rows near the top of the tube. Filament very short. Stigma sessile. Flowers sessile, cauline, in threes. eaves lanceolate. Tue Artiricta, CHaracTErs. Cuass Octanprra. Stamens eight. Orper Monocynta. Apetalous. Ovary superior. Fruit a one-seeded drupe. Shrubs with a very tenacious bark, alternate or opposite Leaves entire. Flowers perfect. _ NATURAL HISTORY. Mezereon grows wild in England and in many parts ot the North of Europe, but for medical use and as an orna- mental shrub it is cultivated in gardens. It is mentioned by Linnzus as a characteristic of the genus, to which the plant under consideration belongs, that the terminating buds of the shoots produce leaves, and the lateral ones flowers. This af- fords a hint to the cultivator to be sparing of his knife. It flowers very early in the season, before the appearance of the, leaves. It is an old inhabitant of the shrubbery, and de- servedly much admired for its precocity and fragrance. It thrives well in loamy soil, and will grow in the shade, and even under the drip of other trees. It is a native of all parts of Europe, from Lapland to Sicily, but was first received from Etbing before it was observed to be a native. The roots of Mezereon are large in proportion to the branches, and have more the character of the fusiform or ramose roots of a herba- ceous than of a ligneous vegetable. _ _ ‘The plant is hardy, seldom exceeding four feet in height, with a strong, woody, branching stem covered with a smooth gray cuticle, and a tough fibrous inner bark. The root is of te DAPHNE MEZEREUM, a fibrous texture, pale-colored, with a smooth olive-colored bark. The leaves, which are protruded from the extremities of the branches, are tender, pale green, deciduous, lanceolate, sessile, entire and smooth. The flowers are of a pale rose- color, odorous, surrounding the twigs in clusters, below where the leaves are sent off, they are sessile, two, three, and four clustered, with deciduous bracts at the base of each cluster, monopetalous, tubular, and the lip divided into four ovate spreading segments. The stamens are alternately shorter, the four higher ones displaying their colored anthers at the mouth of the tube. The germen is oval, supporting a flattish stigma on a very short style. The fruit is a red pulpy drupe, containing one round seed. There are several varieties of this genus with different colored flowers and fruit, pink-colored in one variety, red in another, white in a third, clothing nearly the whole plant. CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. The inner bark of every part of this plant when fresh, is very acrid, capable of producing inflammation, vesication, and a discharge of seram when applied to the skin, and when chewed excites a considerable heat of the mouth and fauces, which continues for many hours afterwards. The fruit. is equally acrid, acting as a corrosive poison, not only to man, but to many quadrupeds, if eaten in large quantities. For medical purposes, the bark of the root is directed to be used. The roots are dug up in the autumn, after the leaves are fallen. The cuticle of the dried root is corrugated and of a brown color, the inner bark has a white, cotton-like appear-_ ance. As they are imported from Germany and found in the stores, they are derived from the stem and branches, and are long strips folded in bundles of a grayish or reddish-brown color externally, under which, on the removal of the epider- mis, it is greenish, and internally white and fibrous. The taste is at first somewhat sweetish, but soon becomes very acrid and unpleasant; in a fresh state the smell is nauseous. but when dried it is inodorous, although it retains its acre mony. The topical action of Mezereon bark is that of an irritant, and when the bark has been applied to the skin, vesi- cant, It has been recommended as a popular application for the tooth-ache. ale mi Ves _From the result of the chemical analysis of the Dapune Mezereum, by several eminent chemists, it appears to contain af, Sie test» and &, poouliae coystelling, peneigledidettied DAPHNE MEZEREUM. “by Vanquelin, to which he gave the name of Daphnin. By digesting the bark in alcohol, then evaporating the liquid to separate the resin, and diluting the residual fluid with water, filtering and adding acetate of lead, he obtained a copious yellow precipitate, which, when freed from the lead by means of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, he found this vegetable princi- ple, sui generis. It is colorless and transparent, crystallizes in aggregated prisms, is very soluble in water, alcohol, or ether, is inodorous and of an acrid taste. It is considered analogous to asparagin, and that when pure it has very slight powers. It is not the active principle of Mezereon. The acrid resin is obtained by boiling the bark in alcohol; when the solution cools, some wax is deposited. The super- natant liquor is to be evaporated, and the residual extract washed with water. The resin then left behind is dark green, and soluble in both alcohol and ether. To this substance Mezereon owes its acridity. There is, however, some reason to suspect that this resin is itself a compound of two princi- ples, viz. an acrid vesicating fixed oil, and another substance. The resin is rendered soluble in water by means of the other constituents of the bark. There are, in addition to those al- ready enumerated, wax, a trace of volatile oil, yellow coloring principle, uncrystallizable but fermentable sugar, nitrogenous gummy matter, reddish-brown extractive, woody fibre, free malic acid and malates of potash, lime, and magnesia. Darune Mezerevum operates as a stimulating diaphoretic, increasing the general arterial action, and determining pow- erfully to the surface ; but it is apt to occasion vomiting and purging. It has long been externally employed as a stimulus to ill-conditioned ulcers, and the recent bark, macerated in vinegar and applied to the skin, is recommended in chronic cases of a local nature; under certain management it pro- duces a serious discharge without blistering, and is thus ren- dered useful by answering the purpose of what is called a perpetual blister, while it occasions less pain and inconven- ience. To form the issue, the bark must be renewed every night and morning, and afterwards once in twenty-four hours, to keep open the drain. It has been employed successfully as a local stimulant in a case of difficulty of swallowing oc- _casioned by paralysis. Though the case was of three years’ ‘Standing, the patient recovered the power of swallowing in about a month, by very frequently chewing thin slices of the root. For this purpose, it should be sliced longitudinally, as the acrimony resides in the bark only, the woody fibre being nearly inert. Internally a decoction of this bark has been used against chronic rheumatism, scrofulous swellings, lepra, _ The branches make a good yellow dye. o 4 ; ae pot BEDE. 2. > SVEATORIOM PPRFOLLATIOW . Thcroughwort Boneset. COMPOSIT A. Asterworts. Nov 34; EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM. Boneset. Thoroughwort, Feverwort, &c. Geog. Position. United States. Quality. Bitter. wot Power. Sudorific, tonic. Use. Dyspepsia, catarrhal affections, fevers. BOTANICAL ANALYSTS. Natural Classification. | Orper COMPOSITZ. | Linnean Classification. Cuass XIX. Syngenesia. Onrver Polygamia AZqualis. Avrnorities.— Lin. Sp. Pl. 1174. Willd. Sp. Pl. TIT. 1761. Pursh. Flor. N. A. II. 516. Lind. Flor. Med. 451. Bigelow, Med. Bot. I. 33. Barton, Veg. Mat. Med. II. 125. Raf. Med. Flor. I. 174. U.S.Disp. 326. Ec. Disp. U.S. 170. Loud. Encyc. Pl. 608. Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med. 315. Thomson, Mat. Med. *108. Pereira, Mat. Med. II. 399. Griff. Med. Bot. 390. Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 811. Beach, Fam. Ph. 655. Howard, Bot. Med. 247. Kost, Mat. Med. 200. Henry, Med. Herb. 55. Wood, Class-Book, 316. Genus EUPATORIUM. Named in honor of Mithridates Eupator, king of Pontus, who first used it in medicine. The properties of the Asiatic or ee ionteeah were Minds known by him. Pliny. : Synonymes. — Eupatoire perfoliée @e ), Daitchteneliseae® Weasserdost (Ger) Tue Essentian CHARACTERS. Catyx. Closely adherent to the ovary, the limb wanting, o membranaceous and divided into palez, bristles, hairs, K&e., called pappus. oe Coro.ua. Superior, consisting of five united petals, ether ligulate or tubular. a Sramens. Five, alternate with the lobes of the corolla. An thers cohering into a cylinder. Ovary. Inferior, one-celled, one-ovuled. Style twolet t the _ inner margins of the branches occupied by the stigmas. EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM, Fruir. An achenium, dry, indehiscent, one-seeded, crowned with the pappus. Flowers collected into a dense head (capitum), upon a common receptacle, sur- rounded by an involucre of many bracts (scales). Tur Seconpary CHARACTERS. Evpatorium. Flowers all tubular. Jnvolucre imbricate, oblong. Style much exserted, deeply cleft. Receptacle naked, flat. Pappus simple, scabrous. Invol bricated 1 le), oblong le long, cloven half way down. nvolucre imbrica' coe Se ty) oe Style 2 Egret pilose, scabrous, or rough papillose. smooth and glandular, five-striate. Tue Speciric CHaracters. EvraTorium PerFouiatum. Leaves connate-perfoliate, pu- bescent. Stem rough and hairy, round. Involucre about twelve-flowered. Leaves connate-perfoliate, oblong-serrate, rugose, downy beneath. Stem villose. THE ArtiriciaL CHaracters. Cuass Syneenesta. Stamens five, cohering by the tips of their anthers. Onper Ponyeamia A®quatis. Herbaceous plants. Flowers or florets collected into dense heads (com- pound flowers). Corollas monopetalous, of various forms. NATURAL HISTORY. The Boneser, or, as it is sometimes called, Thoroughwort, is a common, well-known plant of low grounds, meadows, the banks of streams, and other moist places, growing generally in bunches, and abounding in almost all parts of the United States. It flowers from the middle of summer to the latter end of October, and is always easily distinguished by the leaves being pierced by the stem. The root of the plant is perennial, horizontal, and crooked, sending up numerous her- baceous stems, which are erect, round, rag and hairy, from one to three feet high, simple below and _ trichotomously ched near the summit, and of a grayish-green color. The character of the leaves is peculiar, and serves to distinguish the species at the first glance. They may be considered either as perforated by the stem, perfoliate, or as consisting each of two: leaves united at the base, connate. Considered in the atter point of view, they ag posite, and in pairs which EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM. decussate each other at regular distances upon the stem ; in other words, the direction of each pair is at right angles with that of the pair immediately above or beneath it. They are narrow in proportion to their length, broadest at the base where they coalesce, gradually tapering to a point, serrate, much wrinkled, paler on the inside than the upper surface, and beset with whitish hairs which give them the same color as the stalks. The uppermost pairs are sessile, not joined at the base. The flowers are white, numerous, supported on hairy peduncles in dense, depressed, terminal corymbs, which form a flattened summit to the plant. The calyx, which is cylindrical, and composed of imbricated, lanceolate, hairy scales, incloses from twelve to fifteen tubular florets, having their border divided into five spreading segments. The an- thers are five in number, black, and united into a tube, through which the bifid filiform style projects above the flower. The seeds are black, prismatic, acute at base, on a naked tocepher cle. The pappus has scabrous hairs. This plant appears to have been known and held in riveicts estimation by the Aborigines of America. The first Euro- pean settlers of this continent derived their knowledge of its virtues from them, and it became a favorite and universal remedy in domestic practice long before it attracted the atten- tion of the profession. It received the name of Boneset from the fact of its having been employed in a painful disease called break-bone fever, and in New England it is called Joepye, from an Indian of that name who cured Meron with it by a copious. eg fate a, a CHEMICAL AND MEDIOAL PROPERTIES AND USES. No accurate analysis of the EuraTorrum PeRFoLIaTum has been made since the recent improvements in vegetable chem- istry. An examination of it some years since, by Dr. Bige- low, showed that the leaves and flowers abound in a bitter extractive matter, and which is probably the active principle. It is soluble in water and alcohol, and forms copious precipi- tates with the metallic salts. It has a faint agreeable odor, and a strongly bitter and somewhat peculiar taste. Rafi- nesque speaks of a peculiar substance in it which he calls Eupatorine, and says it is brown, bitter, resiniform, soluble ae water and alcohol, forming sulphates, nitrates,&c. en of the plant are used, but the herb only is: offici- — nal. ee mapa: In large doses, — . EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM. emetic and aperient. It is generally found in the stores in packages put up by the Shakers at Lebanon, N. Y. These packages contain the leaves and flowers, and when not de- teriorated by damp are a good mode of preparing the article. Some difference of opinion has existed as to which part of the plant is most efficient. From various experiments it has been thought that the leaves were the most active, but more extended observations have shown that the flowers and small branches are equally useful. The medical properties of Evparortum PERFOLIATUM are various and important. It is employed to fulfil a number of indications, being given as a tonic, a diaphoretic, or an emetic, as the circumstances of the case require. Besides these, many other properties have been attributed to it, and though it is certainly a highly important remedy when properly admin- istered, it cannot be endowed with all the remarkable and numerous powers that have been attributed to it. As a tonic, it is deserving of high commendation, and is well suited to those cases of dyspepsia, general debility, and want of tone in the system, requiring the exhibition of the simple bitters. With a view to its tonic effects it is best ad- ministered in substance or in cold infusion, and is a mild and agreeable bitter. The dose of the powder is twenty or thirty eraine, Aes of the infusion one or two fluid ounces frequently re _As a diaphoretic, there is ample proof of its powers, par- ticularly in catarrhal affections and inflammatory rheumatism, given in warm infusion so as to produce copious perspiration or vomiting. In the commencement of catarrh it will fre- quently arrest that complaint. In various forms of fever, particularly remittent and typhoid fevers, it is highly esteemed, and proved beneficial by the testimony of many distinguished practitioners. In yellow fever it is also said to have been productive of very great advantage. With a view to its diaphoretic operation, the infusion should be administered geil in large draughts, and the patient remain covered : As an emetic, it is also well deserving of notice. It is given in warm decoction, and may be employed for this purpose as a substitute for the infusion of camomile. It is considered valuable in the early stage of autumnal fevers. In large doses it is said to act on the bowels, and it has long been esteemed as an efficacious remedy in bilious colic accompa- ied by obstinate constipation, in the dose of a teacupful every half hour until a cathartic effect is } , _ wo other native species are officinal in the U. S. Pharma- copeia. The Evparorium purpureum, and the Evparorium ' TEUcRIFOLIUM. ‘They do not, however, appear to possess any _ powers difiering from the Evparorium perrouiatumM. ARISTOLOCHIACEA. _Birthworts. No. 52. ASARUM CANADENSE. Canapa Snaxeroot. Wild Ginger, Coltsfoot, Asarabacca. Geog. Position. United States. Quality. Aromatic, slightly bitter. Power. ‘Tonic, diaphoretic, expectorant. Use. Colic, whooping-cough, and as an errhine. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Classification. “Orpver ARISTOLOCHIACEZ:. Linnean Classification. Crass XX. Gynandria. Orver Decandria. Aurnorities. — Lin. Sp. Pl. 633. Willd. Sp. Pl. IL 838. Bigelow, Med. Bot. I. 150. Barton, Veg. Mat. Med. II. 85. Raf. Med. Flor. L 70. Whitlaw, Med. Disc. 87. Lond. Disp. 205. U.S. Disp. 123. Ec. Disp. U.S. 82. Loud. Encye. Pl. 392. Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med. 376. Thomson, Mat. Med. 779, "97. Pereira, Mat. Med. II. 244. Griff. Med. Bot. 527. Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 858. Beach, Fam. Phys. 644. Howard, Bot. Med. Il. 224. Kost, Mat. Med. 257. Wood, Class-Book, 465. Genus ASARUM. An ancient name, supposed to have been formed from a privative, and O80, bandage, because it was not used in garlands, of which the ancients were so fond. Synonymes.— L’asaret (Fr.), Die Haselwurz (Ger.), Mansoir (Dutch), Asaro (It.), Asaro (Sp.), Wodolei (Russ.), Kopytriuk (Pol.). ad Tue Essentiran CHaracrers. Caryx. Tube adherent to the ovary. Segments three, valvate in estivation. wei — Sramens. Six—twelve, epigynous, or adhering to the base of the short and thick styles. spe Ovary. Three-six-celled. Stigmas radiate, as many as the. cells of the ovary. j “ ASARUM CANADENSE. Frurr. Capsule or berry, three —six-celled, many-seeded. Embryo minute, in the base of fleshy albumen. Sreps. Numerous. Tue Seconpary CHARACTERS. Asarum. Calyx campanulate. Stamens twelve, placed upon the ovary. Anthers adnate to the middle of the fila- ments. Style. very short. Stigma six-rayed, Capsule six- celled, crowned with the calyx. Calyz somewhat bell-form, three or four-cleft, superior. Corolla wanting. An- thers proceeding from the middle of the filaments. Stigma six-cleft. Capsule cori- aceous, six-celled, crowned with the calyx. Tue Speciric Cuaracters. Asarum Canapense. Leaves two, broad, reniform. Calyx woolly, deeply three-cleft, the segments reflected. Calyx woolly, deeply three-parted, divisions sub-lanceolate, reflected. Leaves broad, kidney-form, in pairs. Tue ArtiricraL CHARACTERS. Cuiass Gynanpria or Dopecanpria. Stamens and style consolidated. Orpen Dercanpria, Exogens. Herbs or shrubs. Flowers greenish. Stamens six to twelve. Sligmas radiate. NATURAL HISTORY. Canapa Snaxeroor, or Wild Ginger, is an indigenous small and acaulescent plant, inhabiting woods and shady places from Canada to Carolina and Missouri. It is most abundant in hills, valleys, and rich alluvions. It flowers from the last of April to the beginning of June, and is of easy propagation and culture. _ The species of Asanum under consideration very closely resembles the Asarum Europeum, in appearance and botani- eal character. It has a long, creeping, jointed, fleshy, yellow- ish root or rhizoma, furnished with radicles of a similar color. The stem is very short, dividing, before it emerges from the ground, into two long, round, hairy leaf-stalks, each of which bears a broad, kidney-shaped leaf, pubescent on both surfaces, of a rich, shining light-green above, veined and pale or bluish Ne ne: th. A single flower stands in the fork of the stem, upon 2 hairy pendulous peduncle. ‘The flower is often concealed by the loose soil, or decayed vegetable matter, so that the ASARUM CANADENSE. leaves with their petioles are the only parts that appear above the surface of the ground. There is no corolla. The calyx is very woolly, and divided into three broad, concave, acumi- nate segments, with the ends reflexed, of a deep-brownish purple color on the inside, and of a dull purple, inclining to greenish, externally. The filaments, which are twelve in number and of unequal length, stand upon the germ, and rise with a slender point above the anthers attached to them. Near the divisions of the calyx are these filamentous bodies, which may be considered as nectaries. The pistil consists of a somewhat hexagonal germ, and a conical grooved style, sur- mounted by six revolute stigmas. The capsule is six-celled, coriaceous, and crowned with the adhering calyx, containing many small seeds. There are many varieties of the Asarum, with small or large leaves, rounded or mucronate, spotted or unspotted. The flowers also vary in color from greenish-purple to dark-blue. The names, wild ginger, snakeroot, are common to all these varieties, although very different in appearance, but similar in taste, smell, and properties. They are frequently and indis- criminately introduced into the bales containing the officinal drug, and commingled with it. CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. _A chemical investigation of the root of Asarum CaNADENSE has been made by Dr. Bigelow, which has been repeated by the late Mr. Richard Rushton. They found it to contain: gum, starch, resin, fatty matter, chlorophyll, volatile oil, salts” of lime and potassa, iron and lignin. The volatile oil has a light greenish-yellow color, a warm, fragrant, slightly bitterish, aromatic taste. It is soluble in all proportions in alcohol and ether, but less perfectly in water. From the close botanical analogy of the plant with the European Asarum, it might be supposed, like that, to possess emetic and cathartic properties, but, at least with the dried root or the leaves, such does not appear to be the fact. Where vomiting has been caused by the use of this plant, it is more attributable to the quantity taken, than to the possession of any inherent emetic qualities it may be supposed to exhibit. of 7 The root alone is officinal, and is prepared by removing — during the summer, and cleansing and drying in the shades in this process, the radicles, from their delicacy, are separated. When fresh it has a yellowish color. -As found in the shops, it is in long, more er pieces, about the thickness ASARUM CANADENSE. of a straw or larger; the external covering is brownish, and wrinkled, the internal substance is white, hard, and brittle; occasionally the fragments of the radicles are attached. It comes, either in mass or in square packages, from the Shakers at Lebanon, New York, when it is connected with the leaves, and is subject to mouldiness from the partially dry state neces- sary to packing by pressure. Its taste is agreeably aromatic and slightly bitter; the smell is aromatic. It is by some sup- posed to be intermediate between that of ginger and serpen- taria, by others thought to bear a closer resemblance to that of cardamone. The taste of the petioles which usually ac- company the root, is more bitter, and less aromatic. The root is an aromatic, stimulant tonic, and in a warm de- coction is possessed of no inconsiderable diaphoretic proper- ties, resembling the Serpentaria in its action on the system, and may be advantageously used as a substitute for it, but is rather more stimulating. In diseases of the skin, attended with fever, in which the eruption is tardy, or has receded, and the grade of action is low, it is thought to be useful by pro- moting the cutaneous affection. It has also been strongly recommended in intermittent fevers, and though itself gen- erally inadequate to the cure of the complaint, often proves serviceable as an adjunct to Peruvian bark, With the same remedy it is frequently associated, and with considerable ad- vantage, in the treatment of typhus diseases, __ Asaroum, like all other articles of the same class, must vary its effects on the animal economy with the mode of exhibi- tion; thus its sudorific power will be manifested by exhibition in warm infusion, and in large quantities in this form it will frequently prove emetic; in cold infusion or tincture, it is cordially stimulating and tonic. The leaves, when dried and powdered, have powerful errhine properties, and make a fine stimulating cephalic snuff, which may be used in all disorders of the head and eyes. They excite irritation, and a discharge of mucus from the nasal membrane; and they are useful in certain affections of the brain, eyes, face, mouth, and throat, on the principle of coun- ter-irritation ; thus, in paralytic affections of the mouth and tongue, in toothache, and in ophthalmia. ' The root is used by the inhabitants of many parts of the country as a substitute for ginger, and for many purposes is fally equal to it. M. Lemery, in his Dictionnaire Universel des Drogues Simples, published in 1733, alludes to its substi- tution for this purpose by the Aborigines of America. It also forms the basis of a spirituous drink, which may be made by the infusion of the whole plant in fermenting wine or beer. _ The roots of the other America n species, Asarum Virci- nicum, and AsaruM arirouium, are similar in their proper- ties, though perhaps ee aromatic or powerful. _ ARUM TRIPHTLLUM. wake robin.” ARACEA. Arads. No. 53. ARUM TRIPHYLLUM. Dracon-rootr. Wild or Indian Turnip, Wake-Robin. Geog. Position. America. Quality. Pungent, caustic. Power. Expectorant, diaphoretic. Use. Cough, chronic bronchitis, asthma, dropsy, &c. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Classification. Orver ARACEZE. Linnean Classification. Crass XXI. Monecia. Orver Polyandria. Aurtuorities. — Lin. Sp. Pl. 1370. Willd. Sp. Pl. IV. 480. Woodv. Med. Bot. 25. Pursh. Flor. N. A. 399. Lind. Flor. Med. 601. Bigelow, Med. Bot. I. 52. Raf. Med. Flor. I. 66. U.S. Disp. 122. Ec. Disp. U.S. 81. Loud. Encye, Pl. 860. Pereira, Mat. Med. Il. 86. Griff. Med. Bot. 616. Gray, Bot. Text- Book, 899. Beach, Fam. Phys. 645. Howard, Bot. Med. II. 223. Kost, Mat. Med. 228. Henry, Med. Herb. 168. Wood, Class-Book, 519. Genus ARUM. Formerly Aron, supposed to be an ancient Egyptian word, by which the sArion colocasia wa known. E The last-mentioned nike bab alteration of its Arabic de- nominative golgas, according to Forskahl. Synonymes.— Le Gouet (Fr.), Der Aronswurz (Ger.), Kalfsvoet = Aro (It.), Yaro (Sp.), Munskesvands (Dan.). Tue Essentian CHARACTERS. Fiowers. Mostly monecious and achlamydeous, anidriged 3 upon a naked or apathaceous spadix. Perianth, when pres- ent, consisting of four —six parts. Sramens. Definite or indefinite, hypogynous, very ames Anthers ovate, extrorse. Ovary. Free, one — several-celled. Stigma seeniles: Frurr. Berry succulent or dry. Sreps. Aoki or several, with fleshy albumen. — : = ARUM TRIPHYLLUM. Tue Seconpary CHARACTERS. Arum. Flowers sometimes diccious. Spathe cucullate, convolute at base. Perianth none. Spadixz cylindric, naked above, staminate below the middle, and pistillate at the base Berry one-celled, many-seeded. Spathe cucullate, one-leaved. Spadix not entirely covered with the fructification, being more or less naked above, with pistillate flowers beneath, and staminate in the middle (sometimes a few are staminate beneath). Berry mostly one-seeded, y cirrhose-glandular beneath. Tue Speciric CHARACTERS. Arum TRIPHYLLUM. Acaulescent. Leaves trifoliate, mostly in pairs. Leaflets oval, acuminate. Spadix clavate. Spathe ovate, acuminate, flat and defluted above. Subcaulescent. Leaves ternate. Leaflets ovate-acuminate, peduncled, with the laminz as long as the spadix. Tue ArtiriciaL CHaRAcTERS. Crass Monacra, Stamens apart from the pistils in differ- ent flowers, upon the same plant. Onrper Po.yanpria. Herbs. Endogens. Monececious. Flowers incomplete on a spadix. Spathe present. Stamens more than two. Root with a fleshy corm or rhizoma. NATURAL HISTORY. The Dracon-root or Wake-Robin is a native of America, both North and South, and is common in all parts of the United States, growing in damp woods, in swamps, along ditches, and in other moist shady places. There are three varieties of this species of Arum, distinguished by the color of the spathe. One variety, virens, has a green spathe. Another, atropurpureum, has a dark-purple spathe. And the other, album, has a white spathe. This plant has a perennial root or cormus, which, early in the spring, sends up a large, ovate, acuminate, variously colored spathe, convoluted at bottom, flattened and bent over at top like a hood, and. supported by an erect, round, green or purplish scape. The scape is from eight to twelve inches high, embraced at the base by the long sheaths of the peti- oles. Within the spathe i is a club-shaped spadix, much shorter , than the spathe, green, p ourple , black, or bacon naald at ARUM TRIPHYLLUM. the end, and contracted near the base, where it is surrounded by the stamens or germs in the dicecious plants, and by both in the moneecious, the female organs being below the male. ‘The spathe and upper portion of the spadix gradually decay, while the germs are converted into a compact bunch of shin- ing scarlet berries. The leaves, which are usually one or two in number, and stand on long, sheathing footstalks, are com- posed of three ovate-accuminate leaflets, paler on their under than their upper surface, and becoming glaucous as the plant advances. The flowering system of the plants of this tribe presents many points of interest. On opening the spathe, it is found to be whitish in its interior, and closely surrounding a central column or spadix, on which the minute flowers are crowded. On detaching these are found at the bottom several tiers of round ovaria, which do not possess any proper style or stig- ma, but have a sort of puckering at their points, which serves the purpose of the latter. Each is one-celled and contains two erect ovules. Above, there are two or three rows of abor- tive or undeveloped ovaria, in the form of horned pear-shaped bodies. Above these, again, there is a crowd of stamens with very short filaments, and these are surmounted by another cluster of abortive ovaria. Here, accordingly, is a large clus- ter of pistilliferous and staminiferous flowers, in which the floral envelopes are entirely wanting, and in which, therefore, the separate flowers can scarcely be distinguished. Each ovarium, however, is the essential part of a pistilline flower, whilst every cluster of anthers is the essential part of a sta- mineous flower, so that here are the most necessary organs of fructification reduced almost to the lowest condition in which they can exist. ci? Lauiteyaty CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. an unpleasant soreness behind. ' ARUM TRIPHYLLUM. ated by buttermilk or oily liquors. Its action does not readily extend through the cuticle, as the bruised root may lie upon the skin till it becomes dry without producing pain, or even redness. The acrid principle is extremely volatile, and is entirely driven off by heat,and by drying. It is not imparted to water, alcohol, ether, or olive-oil. The root loses nearly all its acrimony by drying, and in a short time becomes quite inert, and almost an insipid farinaceous substance. It may, however, be kept in its green state a considerable time by burying it in moist sand in a cellar. It is found to contain, besides the acrid principle, from ten to seventeen per cent. of starch, albumen, gum, sugar, extractive lignin, and salts of potassa and lime. The starch may be obtained from it as pure white and delicate as from the potato. The fecula of the dried root is a pure and excellent arrowroot. In the re- cent or partially dried state it has been used as a carminative stimulant, in flatulence, colic, &c. Arum in its recent state is a powerful local irritant, possess ing the property of stimulating the secretions, particularly those of the skin and lungs. It has been given with consid- erable advantage in asthma, pertussis, chronic catarrh, chronic rheumatism, and various affections connected with a cachectic state of the system. Immediately taken from the ground, it is too acrid for use. The recently dried root, which retains a portion of the acrimony, but not sufficient to prevent its con- venient administration, is usually preferred. It may be given in the dose of ten grains, mixed with gum Arabic, sugar, and water, in the form of emulsion, repeated two or three times a day, and gradually increased to half a drachm or more. The powder made into a paste with honey or syrup, and placed in small quantities on the tongue, so as to be gradually diffused over the mouth and throat, is said to have proved useful in the aphthous sore mouth of children. In Europe the dried root of the Arum maculatum (whose medicinal properties are precisely those of the plant under consideration) is sometimes employed by the common people in times of great scarcity as a substitute for bread; and an _ amylaceous substance is prepared from it in England, called Portland arrowroot, or Portland sago. This substance is a white powder, whose particles examined by the microscope are found to be exceedingly small. They are circular, mullar- _ shaped, or polyhedral. The angular appearance of some of _ them probably arises from compression. The hilum is circu- Jar and apparently lies in a small depression. It cracks in a linear : —_ oe a This substance is very nutricious and demulcent, ‘ding a light, mild, and agreeable article of diet, well adapted eae aes Soca ey and par- ticularly suited from its demulcent properties to bowel com-— » NTHA PIPERITA. Ee “ . LABIATA. Labiate Plants. No. 54. MENTHA PIPERITA. PeprermMint. Geog. Position. Europe. Quality. Penetrating, grateful. Power. Stomachic, stimulant. Use. Nausea, griping, flatulent colic, to disguise the un- pleasant taste of other neha BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Classification. Orver LABIATZ. Linnean Classification. Cuiass XIV. Didynamia. Orver Gymnospermia. Avrnoritres.— Willd. Sp. Pl. III. 74. Woody. Med. Bot. 336. Lind. Flor Med. 487. Raf. Med. Flor. Li. 242. Whitlaw, Med. Dise. 116. Lond. Disp. 439. U.S. Disp. 475. Ec. Disp. U.S. 261. Loud. Encye. Pl.500. Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med. 355. Thomson, Mat. Med. *104. Pereira, Mat. Med. II. 288. Griff. Med. Bot. 502. Carson, Illust. Med. Bot. II. 16. Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 840. Beach, Fam. Ph. 663. Howard, Bot. Med. 269. Kost, Mat. Med. 329. Wood, Class-Book, 416. » Gancs MENTHA. “Mivga or ales, in old Greek. The Poets feign that Mince ge Cocytus, transformed into the plant which bears her name; an Z tion of the terrible effects ascribed to the plant by the ancients. Syvonrmes. — Menthe poivrée (Fr.), Pfeffermunze (Ger.), Peperminte (Dutch), Peparmynta (Swed.), Menta ox Piped (It), Verbal nina de gg? de Pimienta (Sp.), Hortelaa apimentada (Port.). Tue Bésayeian Onanatnghe: plat CaLyx. Tubular, regularly five-toothed or cleft 0 or Dilabiate persistent. Corotta. Bilabiate (rarely regular, fire tobthedle ‘the: upper lip bifid or entire, overlapping in estivation the lower three- cleft one. ‘ Sramens. Four, didynamous, or sometimes only two, the 1 | MENTHA PIPERITA. upper pair being abortive or wanting, situated on the co- rolla tube. Anthers mostly two-celled. Ovary. Free, deeply four-lobed, the single style arising from the base of the lobes. Frorr. One —four hard nuts or achenia. Seeps. Erect, with little or no albumen. Embryo erect. Cotyledons flat. Tue Seconpary CHARACTERS. Mentua. Calyx equally five-toothed. Corolla nearly reg- ular, four-cleft, the broadest segment emarginate. Stamens four, straight, distant. Anthers cells parallel. Filaments naked. gaerele nearly equal, four-lobed, broadest division emarginate. Stamens erect, ‘distant. Tur Speciric CHaracTeRs. Menraa piperira. Leaves smooth, ovate-lanceolate, ser- rate, petiolate. Bracts lanceolate. Calyx quite smooth at base. Spikes obtuse, interrupted below. Leaves subovate, somewhat glabrous, petioled. Stem glabrous at the base. Tue Arririctan CHaRacTErs, Opie Dirnama. ‘Stamens four, two of them longer than the other two. Orper Gymnosrermia. Seeds naked. Ache- nia four (or fewer) included in the calyx. Corolla mono- petalous and labiate. __ NATURAL HISTORY. _Perpermint is a native of Europe, and has become natural- ized in many parts of the United States. It is a perennial herbaceous plant, and grows in wet and moist places, flower- _ ing the latter part of the summer. It is occasionally found _ growing wild along the fences and by-places of the country. In many parts of New England, and especially in the west- ern part of New York, in Ohio, and New Jersey, the plant is largely cultivated for the sake of its volatile oil. . All the spe- cies } are raised by the same methods, by parting the roots, by offse young plants, and by cuttings of the stalks. The ultivator ‘the plant observe that, to keep up its quality, the ™ ast be transplanted every three years, otherwise it de- tes into Sa fare a, of, Spcareninte coplpicag viridis. If MENTHA PIPERITA. the plant be cut in wet weather it changes to black and is little worth. The root of the plant is creeping; the stem quadrangular and channelled, nearly upright, and about two feet high, branching, purplish, and rather hairy with the hairs bent back- wards. The leaves are of a dark-green color, opposite, peti- olate, ovate, rather pointed, serrated, the upper side smoother and less pubescent than the under, which is paler with white and purple veins. ‘The flowers are in terminal spikes, solitary, almost capitate, interrupted beneath, with the lower whorl more remote, and on a footstalk. The bracts are lanceolate and ciliated. The calyx is furrowed, tender, studded with glandular points. The base entirely naked, very smooth and five-cleft, with the teeth of a blackish purple color, ciliated. The corolla is purple, and conceals within its tube the anthers, which are on short filaments. The germen is four-cleft, with a filiform style longer than the corolla, and furnished with a bifid stigma. The four-cleft germ is converted into four seeds, lodged in the calyx. ; Sir J. E. Smith supposes that this plant was discovered by Dr. Eales, and says that what is called Peppermint in the North of Europe is merely a variety of Mentha hirsuta, hav- ing a similar odor, and is the Mentha piperita of the Linnean herbarium. CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. The whole plant is officinal. The odor of both the recent and dried plant is peculiar and well known, aromatic, pene- trating, and grateful, in some degree resembling camphor; and. the taste pungent, warm, glowing, and bitterish, followed by — a sensation of coldness when air is drawn into the mouth. It gives out its properties to alcohol and partly to water. It con- tains volatile oil, a bitter principle, resin, tannic acid, and woody fibre. The oil can’ be obtained separate by distillation. It is colorless, but becomes yellowish or even reddish by age. It has a powerful aromatic odor, and an extremely pungent taste. The camphor it contains is isomeric with the oil. Peppermint is empl@¥ed in medicine for several purposes. It is stomachic, stimulant, antispasmodic, and carminative. It is chiefly used to allay nausea and griping, to relieve flatu- lent colic, and in hysteria; or as a vehicle to cover the nause- _ ous taste of other medicines. It is, however, to many palates _ extremely disagreeable. The fresh herb, bruised and applied over the epigastrium, often allays sick stomach, and is espe- - : = * we % Ls ee ee ’ MENTHA PIPERITA. cially useful in the cholera in children. The medicine may be given in infusion, but the volatile oil, either alone or in some state of preparation, is generally and almost always preferred. There are several varieties, and all are herbaceous and odor- ous, with verticillate flowers, either axillary or spiked. Several of the species are officinal. The following are the principal preparations of this medi- cine, with their uses. Aqua Mento piperitse. ‘Take of peppermint a pound and a half, pour over it as much water as will prevent empy- reuma during the distillation. Distil a gallon. Peppermint water has the flavor and taste of the plant in a very considerable degree. It is sometimes used alone as a carminative and stimulant, but more generally for the purpose of covering the taste of other medicines. Seinitus Menrux pirertrz. Take of oil of peppermint, by weight, six scruples and a half; proof spirit four pints and a half ; water, sufficient to prevent empyreuma. Add the spirits to the oil, and pour on them as much water as will prevent empyreuma, then distil with a slow fire one gallon. Spirit of peppermint is a useful carminative in nausea and flatulence, and as an adjunct to purgative remedies. This spirit has no advantage ‘over a simple solution of the oil in alcohol, and may therefore with great propriety be substituted for it. The solution is usually kept in the shops under the name of essence of peppermint. Oveum Mentux pirerirm. Obtained by submitting the fresh herb to distillation with water. Its odor is strong and its taste very pungent, but at the same time it impresses a sensa- tion of coldness. The vapor of it applied to the eye causes a feeling of coldness. Its color is greenish-yellow, or nearly colorless, but it becomes white when exposed to the light, and reddish by age. Four pounds of the recent plant yield from one drachm and a half to three drachms and a half of the oil. The product is generally less than one per cent. In a warm, dry, and favorable season, the product of a given quantity of the fresh herb is double that which it yields in a wet and cold season. Oil of peppermint is a stimulant and carminative, and is used occasionally as an antispasmodic, It is a common do- mestic remedy in cramp of the stomach, flatulent colic, and ‘anorexia, and as a corrigent or adjuvant of other medicines. ‘The dose is from one to three drops, ai is most conveniently given rubbed up with sugar and then dissolved in water. _ Besides the above, there are other popular preparations of peppermint extensively used. Inrusum MenTH® PIPERITE, _ Leppermint tea; Roture Mentrux pirerrre, Peppermint drops; Tus Lraveve sold at the spirit-shops as mint or pep- - pee : CO . : y D us SC, ; : i) me: 3 i | Hie oo * CONVOLVULACEA. Bindweeds. Na 55. CONVOLVULUS SCAMMONIA. Scammony. Syrian Bindweed. Geog. Position. Europe. Quality. Acrid, bitter, nauseous. Power. Purgative, Use. The root in costive habits. BOTANICAL AD ALLE. Natural Classification. OrpER CONVOLVULACEA. Linnean Classification. Cuass V. Pentandria. Orver Monogynia. Aursonritises. — Lin. Sp. Pl. 218. Willd. Sp. PL I. 844. Woody. Med. Bot. II. 243. Lind. Flor. Med. 398. Whitlaw, Med. Disc. 28. Lond. Disp. 297. U.S. Disp. 661. Ec. Disp. U.S. 137. Loud. Encyc. Pl. 140. Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med. 340. Thomson, Mat. Med. 918. Pereira, Mat. Med. IJ. 337. Griff. Med. Bot. 477. Carson, Ilust. Med. Bot. If. 14, Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 846. _ Genus CONVOLVULUS. From the Lat consolvere, to entwin, from the habit. A large genus of tame or prostrate her! Synvonrmns. — Scammonée (Fr. 1); Sscies beouihegrad von Aleppo (Ger. ) Soummo- nea (It.), Escamonea os, and For), Het Scammoneum Pan Sukmunya (Heb. and Arab.). . Tar as, CuaracTers, Cautyx. Sepals five, much imbricated, usually united at base, persistent. Corotus. Regular. Limb five-lobed or entire, plaited and _ twisted in estivation. - _Sramens. Five, inserted into the base of the —— — alternate with its lobes. ; a: Ovary. — ee free. Styles een ite ae *RUIT | Get oo wate valves with fie ifragal CONVOLVULUS SCAMMONIA. Sseeps. Few, large, with mucilaginous albumen. Cotyledons foliaceous or wanting. Tur SeconpaRy CHARACTERS. Convotvutvus. Calyx five-parted, naked, or with two small bracts near the base. Corolla campanulate or funnel-form. Limb five-plaited. Stamens shorter than the limb, rarely a little longer. Ovary two-four-celled. Cells one -two-ovuled. Style simple. Stigma simple or two-lobed. Capsule valvate, two — four-celled, four — six-seeded. Calyx five-parted, with or without two bracts. Corolla funnel-form, plaited. a two-cleft or double. Cells of the capsule two or three, each one or two- Tur Speciric CHARACTERS. ConvoivuLus Scammonia. Stemsmooth. Leaves sagittate, posteriorly truncate. Lobes entire or elongate-laciniate. Pe- duncles very long, many-flowered. : Stem twining, herbaceons. Leaves sagittate, truncate behind, with pointed lobes at the base. Peduncles rounded, about three- flowered. Tae Anmirictan. CHARACTERS. Chast Pawtinedls Stamens five. Orper Monoeynia. Monopetalous. Flowers inferior. Corolla regular. Herbs rarely shrubby. Stamens alternate with petals. Fruit, cap- sule or berry. Cells with one or two seeds. Corolla limb entire. NATURAL HISTORY. Convo.vu.tus Scammonia is a native of Syria, Cappadocia, and Cochin China. It grows in abundance in the mountains between Aleppo and Latachea, and flowers early in summer. From these places the greater part of the Scammony of com- merce is obtained. The root, which is perennial and fusiform, is tapering, from three to four feet long, and from nine to twelve inches in circumference, covered with bark of a light- gray color ; it is branched towards the bottom, and every part of it contains a milky juice. It sends up many slender, twin- ing” stems, which spread themselves in the ground, or climb Ss ae Seer: shembe or trees. to the estent of fifteen or CONVOLVULUS SCAMMONIA. * the pedicles, consisting of a double calyx of four emarginated leaflets in each row, and a funnel-shaped, pale-yellow plaited corolla. The capsule is three or four-celled, containing small pyramidical-shaped seeds. The plant will grow readily in any soil, and is increased by the roots or seeds, and sometimes by cuttings in sand. Scam- mony is obtained from the root of this plant in the following manner. Having cleared away the earth from about the root in the beginning of June, the peasants cut off the top in an oblique direction, just below the corona, or about two inches from the point whence the stems arise and below it. Under the most depending part of the slope they fix a shell, or some such utensil or receptacle, into which the juice flows sponta- neously. It is left there about twelve hours, which suffice for draining off the whole juice: this is in small quantity, each root affording but a few drachms. The juice from the several roots is added together, often in an old shoe or leg of a boot, for want of something better, where in a litile time it grows hard, and is the genuine Scammony. This concrete is a gummy resin, of a light, shining gray color and friable texture. It is imported from Aleppo in what are called drums, which weigh from seventy-five to one hun- dred and twenty-five pounds each; and from Smyrna in cakes like wax, packed in chests. The former is light and friable, and is considered the best; that from Smyrna is more com- pact and ponderous, less friable, and more abounding in im- purities. This is owing to the craft and cupidity of the Jews, — who make it their business to go where the Scammony is — prepared, and buy it while yet soft of the peasantry, and mix it with the expressed juice of the stalks and leaves, with wheat-flour, ashes, soot, fine sand, and various other articles, with which Dr. Russell found it adulterated. At Aleppo they have not the same opportunities, and therefore the Scammony from the latter place is most valuable. ss CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. Good Scammony is light, friable, extremely like a honey-— 3 comb, and should Jactify or become milky when wetted with __ the finger. It has a peculiar characteristic, rather heavy odor,. _ which has been compared to that of old ewe-milk cheese,and = __ a bitterish, slightly acrid taste. The color is blackish or bluish~ pe es ap aes CONVOLVULUS SCAMMONIA.,. ance of the concrete alone is the proper test. The fracture is irregular, but smooth, faintly shining, and the sharp edges of the shivers are of a lighter gray color and translucent. It is pulverulent, and the powder has a light-gray color. Its specific gravity is 1.235 (Brisson). When it is of a dark color, heavy, and splintery, it should be rejected. When tritu- rated with water, nearly one fourth of it is dissolved, and the solution appears slightly mucilaginous, opaque, and of a greenish-gray color. ‘This solution is not affected by alcohol, solutions of superacetate and acetate of lead and sulphate of iron, nor precipitated by the acids; but with sulphuric acid it gives out the odor of vinegar. Solution of ammonia does not alter it, but that of potassa occasions a yellowish precipi- tate, which is quickly redissolved on the addition of an acid. Ether takes up two parts in ten of Scammony, and when evaporated leaves a brownish semitransparent resin. Alco- hol dissolves two thirds of its weight, but proof spirit is its best menstruum, taking up the whole except the impurities. Aleppo Scammony contains, according to Bouillon, La Grange, and Vogel, 0.60 of resin, 0.20 of extractive, 0.03 of gum, and 0.35 of impurities. Smyrna Scammony contains 0.29 of resin, 0.08 of gum, 0.05 of extractive, and 0.58 of impurities. When these impurities consist of flour, sand, or ashes, they may be detected by dissolving the sample in proof spirit, as they sink and remain undissolved; but Scammony is some- times also adulterated with the expressed juice of Cynanchum monspeliacum, and a fictitious Scammony is sold for the real, consisting of jalap, senna, manna, gamboge, and ivory black. mmony is a drastic cathartic, operating in general quickly and powerfully. The purest is that which is most active and soluble. The ancients were acquainted with its purgative qualities, and also employed it as an external ap- plication for removing hard tumors, itch, scurf, and fixed pains, but for the latter purposes it is now seldom or never used. It is a good purgative in the torpid state of the intestines, in _leucophlegmatic, hypochondriacal, and maniacal subjects; in - worm cases and the slimy state of the bowels to which chil- _ dren are subject; and as a hydragogue cathartic in dropsy. Scammony has been regarded by some as a cathartic of so irritating a nature as to require to be corrected by exposing it _to the fumes of sulphur, defecating it with lemon-juice and “other acids, and uniting it with demulcent mucilages ; but _ except in an inflamed or very irritable state of the bowels, it is a safe and efficacious purgative. It is, however, apt to _ gripe, on which account it is generally united with an aro- a ‘he dose is from five to fifteen grains, whether given in eras a bolus, or in the form of mixture triturated with oe” ona tAMONIUM. SOLANACEA. ‘ Nightshades. No. 56. DATURA STRAMONIUM. Tuorn-Arprie. Jamestown Weed. Geog. Position. America. Quality. Fetid, nauseous. Power. Narcotic, acrid. Use. Asthma, chronic pains, &c. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Classification. ee Orpen SOLANACEA. Linnean Classification. Cuass V. Pentandria. Orver Monogynia. Avurtnoritigs. — Lin. Sp. Pl. 255. Willd. Sp. Pl. I. 1008. Woody. Med. Bot. 124. Pursh. Flor. N. A. I 141. Lind. Flor. Med. 510. Bigelow, Med. Bot. I. 17. Raff. Med. Flor. I. 146. Whitlaw, Med. Disc. 32. Lond. Disp. 323. U.S. Disp. 709. Ee. Disp. U.S. 156. Loud. Encyc. Pl. 134. Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med. 346. Thomson, Mat. Med. 808. Pereira, Mat. Med. II. 319. Griff. Med. Bot. 490. Carson, Ilust. Med. Bot. II. 20. Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 849. Beach, Fam. Ph. 655. Henry, Med. Herb. 271. Wood, Class-Book, 446. : Genus DATURA. > = An alteration of the Arabic name Tatorah. Forskant. Tatula is altered from Datula, a name given to the Datura by the Turks and Persians. Synonymes. — Pomme €pineuse, Stramoine (Fr.), Der Stechapfel (Germ.), Stra- monio (It.), Estramonio (Sp.), Doornappel (Dutch), Estramonia (Pol.), Durman (Russ.). Tue EssEentian Cuaracrens. Catyx. Sepals four—five, more or less united, mostly per- sistent. oe | Corotua. Regular. Limb four — five-cleft, plaited in esti- vation, deciduous. eR a knageiee ee Sramens. Four-five (sometimes one abortive), inserted on _ the corolla, alternate with its segments. Anthers bursting _ longitudinally, rarely by terminal pores, Ovary. Free (superior) two-celled, (four-cedled in Datura) — DATURA STRAMONIUM. with the placenta in the axis. Styles and stigmas united into one. 4 Fruit. A capsule or berry. £ Seeps. Numerous. Embryo curved, being in fleshy albumen. Tue Seconpary CuHaracrers. Datura. Calyx large, tubular, ventricose, five-angled, de- ciduous, with a persistent, orbicular, peltate base. Corolla infundibuliform. Tube cylindric,long. Limb five-angled and plaited. Stamens five. Stigma obtuse, bilamellate. Capsule two-celled, four-valved. Cells two — three-parted. Calyx tubular, angled, caducous, with a permanent orbicular base. Corolla fan- nel-form, plaited. Capsule four-valved, two-celled, and each cell half divided, generally thorny. : Tue Spectric CHARACTERS. Datura Srramontum. Stem dichotomous. Leaves ovate, smooth, angular-dentate. Capsule spiny, erect. Pericarps spinose, erect, ovate. eaves ovate, glabrous, angular, dentate. Tue Arririctan CaaracrTers. Crass Pentanpria. Stamens five. Orper Monoeynta. Monopetalous. Flowers inferior. Corolla regular. Herbs ‘(rarely shrubby). Stamens alternate with petals. Fruit, cap- sule or berry. Cells two, with many seeds. istivation ; eon NATURAL HISTORY. It is very uncertain where the Datura was originally native. It certainly appears indigenous to America, but it was first introduced into England from Constantinople in Gerard’s time, and by him “ dispersed through the land.” Professor Martyn _ Says, “that in the earth brought with plants from various parts of: this extensive continent, they are sure to have the Thorn- ipple come up.” It is an erratic and wandering plant, com- no: ak parts of the _ world, and spreading with the utmost Af rica, and America. It. i been sup- ive ot, North. Ameriony: but it has appeared ; DATURA STRAMONIUM, thither. The plant has handsome flowers, sometimes four inches long. It has been cultivated for its beautiful blossoms, although it has an unpleasant narcotic smell. Children yet use them for garlands by forming strings of the flowers within each other. Datura Srramonium is now become a noxious weed, in- festing fields, &c. It is commonly met with near houses, along the roads, in commons, old fields, &c., and never in woods or mountains. It is found in all the States, also in Canada, Mexico, and in South America. In the Southern States it blossoms from May to September, and in the North- ern States from July to October. It rises about two feet in height, with a round stem, branching and dichotomous above, spreading, and leafy. The leaves are large, rising from the forks of the stem on long round petioles, of a dark-green color on the upper surface, and pale beneath, irregularly ovate-tri- angular in figure, sinuated and unequal at the base. The flowers are large, axillary, and solitary, on short erect pedun- cles. The calyx is about two inches in length, tubular, pen- tangular, and five-toothed. The corolla longer, of a white color, funnel-shaped and plaited, with the filaments, which support oblong, flat anthers, adhering to the tube, and the style filiform, terminated with a thick club-shaped stigma. When the corolla and its included parts drop, the calyx also separates, except the base, which remains, and becoming reflex _ enlarges with the receptacle as a support to the fruit. The fruit is a large, fleshy, ovate-roundish four-cornered capsule, beset with sharp, awl-shaped spines, four-celled at the base, two-celled at the apex, and psa of a ee escume’ of reniform compressed seeds. i CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. Datura Srrawonive has a narcotic, fetid odor, producing headache ; a bitterish nauseous taste, and gives to the saliva a deep. green tinge when chewed. The analysis of Promaite | gives as the components of Thorn-Apple, gummy extractive __ a sects 6, chlorophyll 64, albumen 15, resin 12, and © te of lime and magnesia 23-178 parts. According Ov fedechicrs( (Dissertatio Medica de Stramonii Usa, &c., L ae sal, Ste of ammonia) and resin, a volatile matter (cart ammonia), and a narcotic principle which has late rtained to be an alkaline salt. tae obtained DATURA STRAMONIUM, Daturine. It is nearly insoluble in water and in cold alcohol, but boiling alcohol dissolves it, and in cooling lets it fall in floceuli. It is crystallized with difficulty, but has been ob- tained in quadrangular crystals. It forms neutral salts with the acids. The medicinal virtues of the herb are extracted both by water and alcohol. The watery infusion is transpar- ent, with a very pale-yellow hue, which is dissipated by acids, but very much deepened by the alkalies. It throws down whitish precipitates with acetate and superacetate of lead, and a black precipitate with nitrate of silver. Solution of sulphate of iron strikes a deep olive color, and muriate of mercury renders it milky, but neither is precipitated till after a very considerable time. Thorn- Apple is narcotic and stimulant. Baron Stoerck first recommended it as an internal remedy in cases of mania and epilepsy. Numerous cases have been recorded in which it has proved a benefit in these diseases, but the general result of the practice has not been satisfactory, and it is now considered rather as useful in allaying the excessive mobility of the sys- tem, than as tending to the absolute cure of the complaint. Its good effects have been more marked in asthma, especially of the spasmodic kind, used as an inhalation by smoking or otherwise. It requires, however, much caution in its use. Dr. Bigelow has given some very judicious remarks on its em- ployment, and others may be found in Dr. Dunglison’s prac- tice of medicine. Dr. Barton regards it as a remedy of great efficacy. He found that when the dose of the dried herb was gradually increased to thirty grains, it dilated the pupil, and produced paralysis of the eyelids, effects which were removed by a blister. Dr. Marcet, who experimented largely with this remedy, observes that many kinds of painful diseases were more relieved by it when used internally, than by any other narcotic; that its effects on the bowels were rather relaxing than astringent, and that the great objection to its employ- ment was the occasional production of disagreeable nervous symptoms. _ Cataplasms of the bruised fresh leaves have been success- fully as an application to inflammatory tumors, and for discussing masses of indurated milk in the breasts of nursing women. An ointment made with the powdered leaves has afforded much relief in hemorrhoids and painful ulcers. This ointment has also been recommended in nymphomania to _ Jessen venereal excitement. _ All parts of the plant are used, but the seeds, from contain- _ ing most daturine, are the most powerful. The dose of the powdered leaves is one grain; of the seeds, half a grain; of ract of the seeds, a quarter of a grain; that from the ure, ten to twenty drops,—all to as 3 wer Ne St. | MOTT TE OEA RANUNCULACEA. Crowfoots. No. 57. COPTIS TRIFOLIA. GouptTuHReAD. Mouth-root. Geog. Position. Europe, America. Quality. Bitter. Power. Stomachie, tonic. Use. Dyspepsia, debility, promoting digestion. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Classification. Sa Over RANUNCULACER. Linnean Classification. Crass XIU Polyandria. Orver Polygynia. AvtHoritiss.— Willd. Sp. Pl 1338. Pursh. Flor. N. A. IL 390. Lind. Flor. Med. 8. Bigelow, Med. Bot. I. 60. Barton, Veg. Mat. Med. II. 97. Raf. Med. Flor. I. 127. U.S. Disp. 282. Ee. Disp. U. 8.139. Loud. Encyc. Pl. 488. Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med.186. Thomson, Mat. Med.77. Pereira, Mat. Med. TI. 759. Griff. Med. Bot. 87. Carson, Ilust. ‘Med. Bot. L. 10. Gray, Bot. Text- Book, 704. Beach, Fam. Ph. 651. Mowaad, Bot. :9tod: M6. Kost, Mat. Med. : 455. meiet Class-Book, 144. Genus coPris. ; ; From te Greck wr tet fom the mameron visions of the Iae, appa : ing as if cut. — SYNONYMES. Tur Essentia, CHaARAcTERS. Catyx. Sepals mostly five, sometimes three, four, or six, mostly deciduous and imbricated in estivation. Corotia. Petals three ~ fifteen, hypogynous, sometimes ir- regular or wanting. Sramens. Indefinite, numerous, distinct, hypegyacne: An thers adnate or innate. ; Ovary. Numerous, rarely poliiaay. or few, distinct, seated on _ the torus. ; _ Frurr. Either dry achenia, bkatente, or follicular. Embryo minute, pa se> fener Sesh einen a ad COPTIS TRIFOLIA. THe Sreconpary Cuaracters. Coptis. Sepals five -six, oblong, concave, colored, decidu- ous. Petals five -six, small, cucullate, obconic. Stamens twenty —twenty-five. Follicles five —ten, stipitate, rostrate, diverging in a stellate manner, four — six-seeded. Scape one-flowered. Leaves ternate. Roots long, filiform, golden-yellow. Tue Speciric CHaracTers. Corris trironia. Leaves three-foliate. Scape one-flow- ered. Petals much smaller than the sepals. Petals five or six, caducous. Nectaries small, five or six, cowled. Capsules ob- long, five -ei stiped, stellate, beaked, many-seeded. Sometimes the nectaries are mistaken for corollas, and the corollas for calyxes. Tue Artiricia, CHaRacrers. Cuass Potyanpria. Stamens twenty or more, arising from the receptacle (hypogynous). Orper Pouyeynia. Leaves never peltate. Herbs with acrid colorless juice. NATURAL HISTORY. Gotprureap inhabits the northern regions of this conti- nent, and of Asia and Europe. It is found in Greenland and Iceland. The plant is an agreeable and pretty evergreen, and bears considerable resemblance to the strawberry in size and general aspect. It delights in the dark shady swamps and cold morasses of northern latitudes and Alpine regions, and abounds in Canada and in the hilly districts of New England. Its most southern limits are New England, New York, and the shores of Lake Erie. Its blossoms appear in May, and it continues in flower during the summer. It flour- ishes best in peat soil, and is increased by dividing the roots. . _ Copris rriroia has a perennial, extensively creeping root, the slenderness and bright-yellow color of which have given rise to the name Goldthread, by which the plant is universally and commonly known. The caudex, from which the petioles and flower-stems proceed, is invested with ovate, acuminate, _ yellowish, imb: ice ed scales: The leaves, which stand in . long, slender footstalks, are’ ternate, with firm, rounded, or > leaflets having an acute base, a lobed and COPTIS TRIFOLIA. The scape or flower-stem is slender, round, rather longer than the leaves, and surmounted by one small white flower, with a,minute mucronate bract beneath it. The petals are oblong, concave, and of a white color, the nectaries inversely conical, hollow and yellow at the top. The stamens have capillary filaments and globose anthers. The germs are from five to eight, stipitate, oblong, compressed, and surmounted by short recurved styles with acute stigmas. The capsules, which di- verge in a star-like form, are pedicelled, compressed, beaked, and contain numerous black seeds attached to the inner . side. Another species of Copris has been described by Dr. Wal- lich, under the name of Coptis Teeta, peculiar to India, and grows in the mountainous regions bordering on Assam, and very much esteemed among the natives. CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. Cortis TRIFOLIA possesses the tonic properties of the sim- ple bitters, and is very analogous in its action to the other plants of the same description, and belonging to the same natural family. Dried Goldthread, as brought into the mar- ket, is in loosely matted masses, consisting of the long, thread- like orange-yellow roots, frequently interlaced, and mingled with the leaves and stems of the plant. It is without smell, and has a purely bitter taste, unattended with aroma or astrin- gency. It imparts its bitterness and yellow color to water and alcohol, but most perfectly to the latter, with which it forms a bright-yellow color. Its virtues appear to depend on a bitter extractive matter, which is precipitated by nitrate of silver and acetate of lead. It affords no evidence of contain- ing either resin, gum, or tannin. we ger ee s Goldthread is a simple tonic bitter, bearing a close resem- blance to quassia in its mode of action, and applicable to all cases in which that medicine is prescribed; though not as powerful, it is far more palatable. From its higher price, however, it is not likely to come into general use as a sub- stitute. It has long been popularly employed as a remedy in autumnal intermittent and remittent fevers, and has found much favor with the medical profession in the latter of these complaints. The state of the fever to which it is particularly applicable, is that which exists in the intervals between the paroxysms, when the remission is such as to call for the use _ ce of tonics, but is not sufficiently decided to justify a resort to the preparations of Peruvian bark. It is also occasionally = _nseful during the progress of, a slow convaleseence, by pro COPTIS TRIFOLIA. moting appetite and invigorating the digestive function, and may be employed for the same purpose in dyspepsia and diseases of debility. From this statement it will be seen that Copris TRIFOLIA possesses in a very considerable degree the tonic powers which characterize the simple bitters. Its use has a tendency to excite the appetite, invigorate the powers of digestion, moderately increase the temperature of the body and the force of the circulation, and act in general as a good corroborant of the system. It may consequently be used in all cases of disease dependent on pure debility of the digestive organs, or requiring a general tonic impression. The condition of the stomach and of the system generally, however, and not of the particular disease, must be taken into consideration in prescribing it; and let it be remembered, there is scarcely a single complaint in which alone it can be advantageously administered under all circumstances. It may be proper, too, to mention that the article under con- sideration is not as powerful as gentian, quassia, and other pure bitters. In the Eastern States Goldthread is considerably employed and held in high estimation as a local application in aphthous and other ulcerations of the mouth; for this purpose it is frequently macerated or chewed in the mouth; but the prin- cipal use made of it is for a gargle, particularly for children. Its astringent properties render it peculiarly serviceable when used with honey and borax. It may be substituted for golden seal or barberry. Dr. Bigelow, however, is of opinion that its efficacy is inert, and, being devoid of astringency, has been overrated, and that probably it has no other virtues in these complaints than such as are common to all the simple bitters; but notwithstanding this authority, it has the concurrent tes- timony of very many respectable physicians and practitioners in its favor. All parts of the plant possess more or less bitterness, but this property is more or less intense in the root, which is the only officinal part. The roots ought to be collected in the summer; they are easily dried, but not so easily re- duced to powder. _ It may be given internally in substance, infusion, or tincture. ‘The dose of the powder is from ten to thirty grains; that of the tincture, prepared by macerating an ounce of the root in a pint of diluted alcohol, one fluid drachm. _ The other species of Coptis peculiar to India is much es- teemed by the natives as a tonic and a stomachic, and from the experiments made with it by Mr. Twining, it would _ upon it. It very closely resembles the Corris rriroxta in LILIACE. Lilyworts. No. 58. LILIUM CANDIDUM. Waite Lity. Geog. Position. Syria, Palestine. Quality. F.Lowers fragrant, Roor mucilaginous. Power. Emollient, anodyne. Use. Epilepsy, dropsy, and maturating tumors. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Classification. Orver LILIACEZ. Linnean Classification. Cuass VI. Hexandria. Orver Monogynia. Avruoritiss. — Lin. Sp. Pl. 433. Willd. Sp. Pl. I. 186. Pursh. Flor. N. A. I. 228. Raf. Med. Flor. Il. 238. Whitlaw, Med. Disc. 61. U. S. Disp. 1348. Ee. Disp. U. S. 243. Loud. Encyc. Pl. 264. Pereira, Mat. Med. I. 130. Griff. Med. Bot. 649. Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 916. Wood, Gaepook ie Genus LILIUM. From the » Celtic word Ji, which signifies whiteness. The tay ne alae been considered the emblem of whiteness and purity. Ss —Le lis ’ D Lili Ger ? 7 es scared cnr a a Ge age COO ee hy Are as THE Eensrertaly ‘Cuanacrens. Catyx and Corouua. Confounded, colored, Tegular, occa- sionally cohering in a tube. * Sramens. Six (rarely four) inserted into the sepals and bs als, Anthers introrse. mB Ovary. Three-celled, many-ovuled. “Siyles tastihed torte one. Stigma often three-lobed. : : = ee ‘Paorr. Capsular or a with several or r many seal Sens. Numerous. “Albumen fest. es 1 LILIUM CANDIDUM. Tar Seconpary CHARACTERS. Litium. Perianth campanulate. Segments mostly recurved, each with a longitudinal groove within from the middle to the base. Stamens shorter than the style. Capsule sub-triangu- lar, the valves connected with latticed hairs. Corolla inferior, liliaceous, six-petalled. Petals with a longitudinal line from the middle to the base. Stamens shorter than the style. Stigma undivided. Capsule sub-triangular, with the valves connected by hairs crossing as in a sieve. Tue Speciric CHARACTERS. Litium canpipum. Leaves scattered, lanceolate, narrowed at the base. Flowers campanulate, smooth inside. jaws lanceolate, scattered, tapering to the base. Corolla bell-form, glabrous within. Tae ArtiriciaL CHARACTERS. Crass Hexanpria. Stamens six. Orper Monoeynta. Endogens. Ovary superior. Flowers not spadaceous, dis- tinct, equal, both petaloid. Ovary many-seeded. NATURAL HISTORY. The White Lily has always been ranked among the very oldest inhabitants of the pleasure or flower garden. In the time of Gerard in England, it was very generally cultivated, and doubtless at a much earlier period. A plant at once so stately, so showy, so fragrant, and at the same time so much disposed to increase, would of course soon be found of very general cultivation. There is also another reason why the plant is accelerated into notice, because, among other extra- ordinary powers anciently attributed to it, we are gravely told that it “taketh away the wrinkles of the face.” _ The plant is fragrant and beautiful. The stem is round, green, thick, firm, and very upright, about four feet high. The leaves are numerous at the bottom, narrow and strap- shaped, with simple parallel veins, and these, together with the flower-stalks, shoot up from under-ground bulbs. The flower consists of six leafy portions similar in color, size, and form, and differing only in position. These envelop six sta- ae Bric within which is a _three-celled ovarium, containing a LILIUM CANDIDUM. after which the pleasure ground is evidently thinned of its beauty. Of the White Lily there are three principal varieties. I. With double flowers. II. With flowers blotched with purple. III. With striped leaves, or leaves edged with yellow. The first two of these are esteemed merely as curiosities. The third plant acquires an accession of beauty which it has not originally, and to which the flower garden is greatly in- debted for one of its chief ornaments. The Lily increases most abundantly by offsets; hence it becomes necessary that the bulbs should be taken up and re- duced every second or third year; but the striped-leaved vari- ety increases much more slowly, and should therefore remain unmolested for a greater length of time. There is scarcely a soil or situation in which the Lily will not grow: it will thrive most in a soil moderately stiff and moist. Though a native itself of a warm climate, moderate severity of weather does not appear to affect it, and therefore we may learn not to regulate the culture of plants invariably by the climate in which they grow spontaneously. ‘The best time for removing the bulbs of this plant is about the middle of August, but they may be transplanted almost at any time in the fall or spring. CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. The scent of the Lily is so powerful that sometimes persons are distressed to have the flowers near them, especially in a room, and there is a species cultivated under the name of the Tuberose, which is much more powerful, especially in the _ evening. This is one of the flowers that has been seen to emit electric sparks, which are supposed to be of electric ori-_ gin. In general, however, the flowers of the Lily have an agreeable odor, which they impart to oil or lard, and an oint- ment or liniment is sometimes prepared from them and used as a soothing application in external inflammations. The in- fusion of the flowers of the Lily in olive-oil is emollient, and often applied externally under the name of Lily-oil. This oil was anciently esteemed for its virtues. It was applied to any part affected with pain or inflammation, particularly in cases _* There is nothing,” says Mons. Tournefort, “very remark- able in the flowers of the Lily, ori that, —— oe gestive and anodyne faculty, they have also an anti-hysteric quality. Infuse them for ina in wine, and so distil 2g _ tion of that, on loo LILIUM CANDIDUM. them; by this means a most excellent water may be obtained for hypochondriasis and hysteria, which every one does not ‘know. ‘The dose is from one to two or three spoonfuls, both for a preservative and a cure.” — Fr. Hoffm. The bulb of the White Lily, which consists of imbricated fleshy scales, is without odor, but has a peculiar, disagreeable, somewhat bitter and mucilaginous taste. It contains much mucilage,/and a small portion of an acrid principle, which is dissipated or destroyed by roasting or boiling. In the recent state, it has been employed with advantage in dropsy. Boiled with water or milk it forms a good emollient cataplasm, more useful in domestic and popular, than in the regular practice. “Gerard informs us, that William Goderus, Serjeant-Sur- geon to Queen Elizabeth of England, found, by experience, that the root of White Lily stamped and strained with white wine, and given to drink for three or four days successively, expelled the poison of the pestilence, and caused it to break out in blisters on the skin; that the same learned gentle- man had cured many of the dropsy with the juice of it, tempered with barley-meal, and baked in cakes, taking care that his patients did eat of it for a month or six weeks with their meat, and no other bread during that time.” Vegetation, when assisted by human contrivances, is the best possible means of improving the air, and rendering a country fitter for the abode of mankind. Cultivation removes APOCYNACE. Dogbanes. No. 59. APOCYNUM ANDROSAMIFOLIUM. Docsane. Bitter-root, Milkweed, Indian Hemp. Geog. Position. America. Quality. Bitter. Power. Tonic, vermifuge. Use. Dropsy, intermittent fever, syphilis. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Classification. Orver APOCYNACE. — Linnean Classification. — Crass V. Pentandria. Orpver Digynia. AvutuHorittieEs. — Lin. Sp. Pl. 311. Willd. Sp. Pl. I. 1259. Pursh, Flor. N. A. I. 179. Lind. Flor. Med. 54. Bigelow, Med. Bot. II. 148. Raf. Med. Flor. I. 49. U.S. Disp. 106. Ec. Disp. U. S. 69. Loud. Encye. Pl.194. Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med. 333. Thomson, Mat. Med. 107. Pereira, Mat. Med. II. 375. Griff. Med. Bot. 449. Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 853. Beach, Fam. Ph. 646. —_ Bot. Med. 218. Kost, Mat. Med. 123 Wood, Class-Book, 456. Genus APOCYNUM. From the Greek &é, away, and xv'er, a dog; that is to say, hn dogs must be driven. Pliny says his Apocynum is mortal to Synonymes.—L’apocin (Fr.), Der Hundekohl (Ger.), Apocino ri raed (Sp.), Hondsdood (Dutch), Hundedod (Dan.). Tue Essentian CHARACTERS. Catyx. Sepals five, united at base, persistent. Corotia. Five-lobed, regular, twisted in estivation, decid | ous. Sramens. Five, arising from the corolla and shined a its segments. Filaments distinct. Anthers two-celled, open- ing lengthwise, sometimes slightly connected. Pollen gran- ular, globose or five-lobe diana = as Ovary. Two, distinct or rarely united) Styles distinct or APOCYNUM ANDROS MIFOLIUM. united. Stigmas united into one, which is common to both styles. Fruit. Follicles two, rarely one of them abortive. Seeps. Numerous, pendulous, with or without a coma, al- buminous. Embryo foliaceous. Tue Seconpary CyaRacTers. Apocynum. Calyx very small. Corolla campanulate. Lobes short. Stamens included. Filaments short, arising from the base of the corolla, and alternate, with five glandu- lar teeth. Anthers sagittate, connivent, cohering to the stig- ma by the middle. Ovaries two. Stigmas connate. Folli- cles long, sublinear, distinct. Corolla bell-form. Stamens with converging anthers, proceeding from the mid- dle of the stigma, and alternating with five nectaries. Stigma thick, almost sessile. Follicles in pairs, long, linear. . Tae Speciric CHaracTers. ApocyNUM aNDROSEMIFOLIUM. Smooth. Leaves ovate. Cymes \ateral and terminal. Limb of corolla spreading. ‘The tube longer than the calyx. ___ Stem erect and branching. Leaves ovate, glabrous. Cymes lateral and terminal. EE ee Pe Ream HE eprentne es Tue Artiricira, CHARACTERS. ~ Cuass Penranpria. Stamens five. Orper Dicynia. Mo- nopetalous. Stamens inserted on be ig distinct. Leaves opposite. Juice milky. NATURAL HISTORY. : The plant Docnanr i is indigenous, perennial, and herba- ‘ceous. It flourishes in all parts of the United States, from Yanada to Carolina. It is found in woods, hills, and in dry ils, along fences, and in old fields. It is rare in soils, or on rich Jand. It blossoms in summer from It ahieae a little “peat « added to common soil, APOCYNUM ANDROS MIFOLIUM. acute at apex, about two or three inches long. The flowers are white, tinged with red, and grow in loose, nodding termi- nal or axillary cymes. Cymes paniculate at the top of the branches, and in the axils of the upper leaves. The pedun- cles are furnished with very small acute bracts. Calyx much shorter than the corolla. Corolla as long as the pedicels, bell- shaped, white, striped with red, with five acute spreading seg- ments. The fruit consists of a pair of long linear acute follicles, containing numerous imbricated seeds attached to a central receptacle, and each furnished with a long seed-down. The other species of the same genus, says Rafinesque, have the same properties in a less degree. ‘The Apocynum canna- binum is distinguished from the above by smaller leaves and flowers in shorter panicles, while the Apocynum hypericifolium has prostrated stems with narrow leaves, and grows only on the banks of streams and lakes. CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. ApocyNUM ANDROSEMIFOLIUM is a very active plant. It contains bitter extractive soluble in water and alcohol, a red coloring matter not soluble in alcohol, a volatile oil, and caout- choue. The root is the most powerful part, but its activity is diminished and eventually destroyed by keeping; it must, therefore, be used fresh. The powder of! the recently dried root acts as an emetic equal to ipecacuanha, and is very gen- erally employed by practitioners in the country, with good ad- vantage and success. Like other emetic substances, it pro- motes diaphorisis and expectoration. It diminishes the fre- quency of the pulse, and appears to induce drowsiness inde- pendently of the exhaustion consequent upon vomiting. In small doses it is a tonic useful in dyspepsia and fevers. It gently stimulates the digestive apparatus, and thus effects a corresponding impression on the general system. if The Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians employed it in syph- ilis, and considered it a specific; they used the fresh root chewed, swallowing only the juice. The latter use has been some time practised in Tennessee and Kentucky. The stem as well as the root abounds in a milky juice, which exudes when any part of the plant is wounded. "Its taste is nauseous _ and intensely bitter. ‘The flowers, notwithstanding, smell of — honey, and produce that sweet substance. Bees and other insects collect this honey, but small flies are often caught by fe inserting their proboscis between the fissures of the anthers, — APOCYNUM ANDROS MIFOLIUM. struggles. Hence one of the popular names of this plant, Catchfly. The disease in which this plant has been found to be most useful is dropsy; in this, from the concurrent testimony of several eminent physicians and practitioners, its remedial powers are decided, sometimes operating as a hydragogue purgative, and at others causing the most profuse discharges of urine, and thus relieving the tissues from their morbid bur- den. Dr. Knapp gives the details of some cases of intermit- tent fever and pneumonic affections, in which he derived much benefit from this remedy employed as a diaphoretic. When given as an emetic, the powder is to be preferred, in doses of fifteen to thirty grains; where its hydragogue or diuretic effects are desired, the best form is in decoction, made by boiling an ounce of the root in a pint of water; the dose is about a wineglass full two or three times a day. The watery extract will act on the bowels in doses of from three to five grains, but is not as efficient as the decoction. Professor A. Curtis, M. D., of Ohio, publishes the follow- ing as the medical properties of the ApocyNuM ANDROSEMI- FOLIUM. “ Bitter, antispasmodic, relaxant, aperient, stimulant, — in one word, Depuratine; hence, as it enables the system to clear itself and recover its tone, many have called it directly tonic. When given in large doses on a foul stomach, it vomits; in small doses, with lobelia seed, cayenne, nervine, and rolled into pills with boneset, butternut, or blackroot ex- tract, it is one of the best articles in our practice to produce a healthy action of the liver and bowels, to break the chills in intermittents, and as one ingredient in spice bitters, woman’s friend, conserve of hollyhock, &c., to be used after a course, it has few superiors. Combined with lobelia seed and cypri- pedium, rolled in boneset extract into a pill and given every hour, it makes an admirable compound to break up conges- tions, costiveness, &c., especially when aided by the bath. Used with polemonium, catnip, or sage and pennyroyal, it is _ an excellent hydragogue in dropsy. Even alone it has cured : ane cases that had defied the skill of the mineral school. _ Used alone, or with a little cayenne, it acts pretty thoroughly as a cathartic.” oie Besides the value of this plant as a therapeutic agent, it is entitled to notice for its use in the arts. The bark furnishes . a fibre resembling hemp, but of a white color, and superior in strength and durability, and a decoction of the plant af- ___ fords a permanent brown or black dye, according to the mor- ose as an emetic forty grains ; as a diaphoretic, the same one grain of opium ; as a tonic or alterant, from Pititecciicc ees ia NTIANA LUTBA. teh low Gentian. GENTIANACEA., The Gentian Tribe. No. 60. GENTIANA LUTEA. YeL_tow GeEnNTIAN. Geog. Position. Europe. Quality. Bitter. Power. Tonic, stomachic, anthelmintic. Use. Rheumatism, gout, jaundice, wastings, &c. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Classification. Orver GENTIANACE. Linnean Classification. Crass V. Pentandria. Orver Digynia. AutuHoritiges.— Lin. Sp. Pl. 335. Willd. Sp. Pl. I. 1331. Woody. Med. Bot 273. Lind. Flor. Med. 319° Raf. Med. Flor. II. 206. Whitlaw, Med. Disc. 43. Lond. Disp. 355. U.S. Disp. 358. Ee. Disp. U. 8.188. Loud. Encye. Pl. 202. Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med. 334. Thomson, Mat. Med. 567. Pereira, Mat. Med. II. 347. Griff. Med. Bot. 460. Carson, Illust. Med. Bot. II. 12. Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 850. Beach, Fam. Peer ae _ Med. 449. Henry, Med. Herb. 140. Wood, Class-Book, 453 Genus GENTIANA. From Gentivs, king of Illyria, who, according to Pliny, first atiaested the tonic virtues of plants of this genus. Synonymes. — La gentiane (Fr.), Der Enzian meet ), La genziana (It.), La cana (Sp) my Omen _——— (Swed.), Genciana Amarella (Pon), Tue Essentia, Cuaracters. : Catyx. Sepals four —- five —ten, united at base, persistent. Corotta. Usually regular. Limb divided into as many lobes as there are sepals, mostly twisted in wstivation. _ ; Stamens. Issuing from the tube of the corolla, as meas os ee its lobes, and alternate with them. — oe Ovary. Ontodied, sometimes ‘Tendered | apparently two ; 1 GENTIANA LUTEA. celled by the introflexed placente. Style united into one, or wanting. Stigma one — two. Frurr. Capsule many-seeded. Seeps. Small. Embryo straight, with fleshy albumen. * Tue Seconpary CHaRAcTErRs. Gentiana. Calyx five —four-parted or cleft. Corolla mar- cescent, tubular at base. Limb four —five-parted. Segments either spreading, erect, or convergent, often furnished with intermediate, plicate folds. Stamens five —four, inserted in the corolla tube. Stigmas two, revolute or erect. Style short or wanting. Capsule two-valved, one-celled, many-seeded. Calyx four or five-cleft. Corolla with a tubular base, bell-form, without pores, four or five-cleft. Stigmas two, sub-sessile. Capsule one- celled, oblong. Colu two, longitudinal. Stamens but four when the divisions of corolla are four. Tue Spreciric CHARACTERS. GenTiana Lutes. Sfem tall, straight. Leaves oval and ovate, margin smooth. Cymes umbellate, dense-flowered, pedunculate, axillary and terminal. Corolla yellow, rotate. Segments oblong-linear, acuminate, spreading without folds. Leaves broad-ovate, nerved. Corollus about five-cleft, wheel-form, whorled. Tue Artiricia, CHARACTERS. Crass Penranpria. Stamens five. Orper Dicynta. Mo- nopetalous. Stamens inserted on corolla. Leaves opposite. Juice watery. Capsule one-celled. NATURAL HISTORY. GeEnTIAN is said to owe its name and introduction into medical use to Gentius, King of Illyria, who was vanquished __ by the Romans more than one hundred and fifty years before a Christ. It is, therefore, not noticed by either Hippocrates or _ Theophrastus, but is mentioned by Dioscorides and by Pliny. a be Genrran is among the most remarkable of the | species which compose this genus, both for its beauty and _ great comparative size. It is a perennial plant found growing — o on the Alps of Switzerland and Austria, the Apennines, the Pyrenees, and other mountainous or elevated regions of Eu- Th Switzerland — Germany it occupies extensive shed by any cattle. Saha sternal to the anal: GENTIANA LUTEA. spear-shaped, stiff, and having five large veins on the back, plaited and of a yellowish-green color; those of the stem are concave, smooth and egg- shaped, sessile, and almost embra- cing the stem, which rises three or four feet in height. The flowers are in whorls at the upper joints, large, yellow, pe- duncled, and beautiful. The calyx, which is a membranous, deciduous spathe, bursts on the side when the flower opens. The corolla is rotated, divided into five or eight narrow spreading segments, elliptical, and speckled with many thick dots. The filaments are shorter than the corolla, and furnished with long, erect anthers. The germen is conical, crowned with two sessile, reflected stigmas, and becomes a conical capsule, which contains numerous small seeds. The plant is very handsome, and often cultivated both for ornament and for the sake of its powerfully tonic virtues. Most of the species succeed well in a light, rich soil, but a few require peat, and some must be grown in pots to be protected by frames in winter. Some of them may be increased by di- viding at the root, but most of them seed freely. The seeds should be sown as soon as ripe; they will then quickly vege- tate; but if left till spring before they are sown, they will not come up till the second year. (Bot. Cult. 371.) Gentian roots are imported from Germany; they are in pieces of various dimensions and shape, usually of considera- ble length, consisting sometimes of longitudinal slices, some- times of the root cut transversely, twisted, wrinkled externally, | sometimes marked with close transverse rings of a grayish-— brown color on the outside, yellowish or reddish wi and. of a soft spongy texture. CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. ~ Gentian roots have no particular odor, and the taste is in- | tensely bitter without being nauseous. When cut transverse-_ ly, the pieces exhibit a yellow maculated heart, with thick bark verging to brown. The sensible qualities of Gentian’ root are extracted _by ether, alcohol, and water. The two | - former extract a resin and a bitter extractive matter, and the latter some part of these and a considerable quantity of mu- é : cilage also, which occasions the infusion often to become ropy. Diluted alcohol is its proper menstruum. In the bitter . tractive the virtues of the plant seem to reside. Ac sis of M. M. Henry, sen., and Caventon, G = contains a = — te i a ye GENTIANA LUTEA. principle, which they named Gentianin, a substance resem- bling birdlime, a greenish oily matter, a free organic acid, a saccharine principle, gum, a tawny coloring matter, and woody fibre. Journ. de Physique, Vol. UXXXIV. 245. Professor Dulk of Konigsberg gives the following process for isolating the bitter principle. The alcoholic extract is macerated in water, and the solution, having been subjected to the vinous fermentation in order to separate the sugar, is treated first with acetate of lead, and then after filtration with subacetate of lead and a very little ammonia, in order to pre- cipitate the combination of the vegetable principle with oxide of lead, care being taken not to use too much ammonia, lest by its stronger basic powers it should separate the vegetable principle from the oxide. The precipitate thus obtained is washed with a little water, then mixed with a large propor- tion of the same fluid, and decomposed by hydro-sulphuric acid. The liquid, having been filtered, is evaporated with a gentle heat fo dryness, and the residue treated with alcohol of 0.820. The alcoholic solution being evaporated yields the bitter principle, which ought to receive the name of Gentianin. It is a brownish-yellow, uncrystallizable substance, having, in a high degree, the very bitter taste of the root. It is almost insoluble in absolute alcohol, but soluble in ordinary alcohol, and very soluble in water. It reddens litmus, and appears to possess acid properties. Gentian root is tonic, stomachie, and in large doses aperient. In very large doses it is apt to load and oppress the stomach, _ to irritate the bowels, and even to occasion nausea and vomit- ing. Its use as a stomachic bitter is of a very ancient date, and is still perhaps the most generally employed of this class of medicines. Many of the complex preparations handed down from the Greeks and Arabians contain it among their ingredients, and it enters into most of the stomachic combi- nations employed in modern practice. It may be used in all cases of disease dependent on pure debility of the digestive organs, or requiring a general tonic impression. It has been found beneficial in dyspepsia, gout, hysteria, and jaundice. It is sometimes joined with the cinchona in intermittents, __ and, according as the circumstances of the cases for which it is prescribed direct, it may be combined with orange-peel, _ chalybeates, aromatics, squill, mineral acids, and neutral salts. _ On account of its antiseptic effects on dead animal matter, its _ powder has been used externally as an application to malig- _ nant and sloughing ulcers. The forms in which it is generally given are infusion and tincture. - _ Many other foreign species are employed as substitutes y gentian. In this country several indigenous kinds domestic practice, and appear to be fully _ = Boge i N° 61. SPICELIA MARILANDICA. ‘Pink-root Wo orm- grass xe RUBIACE A. Madderworts. No. 61. SPIGELIA MARILANDICA. Carouina Pinx-roor. Worm-grass. Geog. Position. United States. Quality. Fetid, bitter. Power. Anthelmintic, narcotic. Use. Worms, intermittent fevers, &c. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Classification. Orver RUBIACEA. Linnean Classification. Cuass V. Pentandria. Orper Monogynia. Avtsorities. — Lin. Sp. Pl. 249. Willd. Sp. Pl. I. 824. Woodv. Med. Bot. 105. Pursh, Flor. N. A. I. 139. Lind. Flor. Med. 524. Bigelow, Med. Bot. TI. 146. Barton, Veg. Mat. Med. II. 75. Raf. Med. Flor. II. 89. Whitlaw, Med. Disc. 27. Lond. Disp. 594. U.S. Disp. 699. Ee. Disp. U.S. 384. Loud. Encye. Pl. 134. Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med. 334. Thomson, Mat. Med.*106. Pereira, Mat. Med. II. 354. Griff. Med. Bot. 466. Carson, Illust. Med. Bot. II. 9. Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 804. Beach, Fam. Ph. 673. Howard, Bot. Med. 294. Kost, a. Med. 246. Wood, Class-Book, 307. Genus SPIGELIA. Named after Aprtan SprcEtius, a celebrated Professor of saan at Padua : author of Isagoge in Rem Herbarium, who died in 1625. Synoyrmes. — Spigelie de Maryland, Brimailler (Fr.), Spigelie (Ger), ae lia (It.). Tue EssentiaL CHARACTERS. Canyx. Tube more or less adherent (superior or half supe-~ tior). Limb four — five-cleft. Corotisa. Regular, inserted mpong the calyx-tube, and of the -same number of divisions. Stamens. Inserted upon the eube of the corolla, equal. in number, and alternate with its segments. eer Ovary. ‘Twwo- (rarely more) celled. Style single or par SPIGELIA MARILANDICA. Fruit. Various. Seeps. One, few, or many in each cell. Tue Seconpary CHARAcTERS. Spicenia. Calyx five-parted. Segments linear-subulate. Corolla narrowly funnel-form. Limb five-cleft, equal. Sta- mens five. Anthers convergent. Cupsule didymous, two- celled, few-seeded. ;, Calyx five- ans Corolla funnel-form. Border equally five-cleft. Anthers con- verging. Capsule twinned, two-celled, four-valved, many-seeded. Tue Speciric CHaRacTers. Sprcevia Mariianpica. Erect, simple, nearly glabrous. Stem square. Leaves sessile, ovate-lanceolate, acute or acu- minate. Margin and veins scabrous-pilose. Spikes three — eight-flowered. Corolla, tube four times longer than the calyx. Anthers exserted. Lobes of the corolla lanceolate. Capsule glabrous, shorter than the calyx. Stem four-sided. Leaves all opposite, sessile, lance-ovate, entire. Tue Artiricia, CHARACTERS. Cuass Pentranpria. Stamens five. Orper Monoeynia. Ovary inferior. Monopetalous. Ovary two or three-celled. NATURAL HISTORY. The Pinx-roor, not less celebrated for its peculiar efficacy in medicine, than admired for its beauty, is a native of the Southern and Southwestern States, and has become rare as far north as Virginia. It delights in dry rich soils, on the borders of woods, and flowers from May to July. The plant is rather difficult in its cultivation. It requires to be grown in a pot, that it may be protected from frosts or too much wet. It will, however, sometimes survive the winter when planted 7 in the ep eroand ina pes of peat. The best soil for it is | tes Vile" The stems are 2 wba numerous, iimew hike Sick: : smooth, of a purplish color, and about seven or eight — ght. See ee SPIGELIA MARILANDICA. are in a solitary spike, with small opposite bracts. The calyx consists of five awl-shaped persistent leaflets. The corolla is of a bright-red color on the outside, and deep-orange within, pentangular above, gibbous at the throat, and widening at the base, with the border five-parted. The segments are lanceolate and revolute. The stamens are five, shorter than the corolla, supporting sagittate, converging anthers. The germen is superior, with a round style, jointed below, with the upper part deciduous. The seeds are angular and rugged. ; The properties of this plant were learned from the Cherokee and Creek Indians, who became acquainted with them under the name of Unsteetla, according to Dr. Garden, about 1723, and they were made known to the profession about 1740. These Indians collected the plant and disposed of it to the white traders. They packed it in casks, or more commonly in large bales weighing from 300 to 350 pounds. ‘That con- tained in casks is to be preferred, as less liable to become damp and mouldy. In consequence of the imperfect manner in which the plant is dried, it seldom happens that packages reach the market free from dirt and mouldiness, and having the stalks of a bright color. CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. Pinx-roor is a powerful and certain anthelmintic. The whole plant is possessed of this property, but the root, being the most active, is generally employed, and this is most strik- ing when in a fresh state, as there is no article that deterio- rates more by exposure and keeping. The odor is very feeble, and the taste sweetish-bitter and unpleasant. It has been frequently analyzed by several eminent chemists and prac- titioners, who have found it to contain an oil, acrid resin, a bitter extractive (on which the vermifuge power is supposed to depend), tannin, gallic acid, some salts, &c. tapes In conjunction with its anthelmintic qualities, however, the plant also sometimes displays those of a purgative, and all its virtues have been attributed by some writers to this action; but this is erroneous, as it manifests its peculiar power on the — worms, without exciting an increased action of the intestines, and hence the usual practice of prescribing a purge after the exhibition of Spicenia. It is more probable that the vermi- fuge qualities of the plant depend on the same principle that induces the narcotic agmpioms. to v it occasionally le that SPIGELIA MARILANDICA. rise. These are dimness of sight, giddiness, dilated pupil, spasmodic motions of the muscles of the eyes, and even con- vulsions. These symptoms, following the administration of Spricenta, have been thought to depend either on the roots of some other plant gathered with the Pink-root, or on some parasitic vine that had attached itself to it. These sugges- tions, however, have both been proved to be erroneous, and that the root itself is narcotic. The use of Spicetia has not been confined to the expul- sion of worms. As early as 1763, Dr. Garden, in correspond- ence with Dr. Hope, states that he had given it with great success in febrile attacks, apparently arising from a disordered condition of the stomach and bowels; this is also confirmed by Dr. Ives, and, in fact, almost every practitioner must have met with proofs of its efficacy in those febrile complaints in children, arising from irritation of the bowels from any cause. Rafinesque mentions that it is used among the Osage Indians as a sudorific and sedative in acute diseases. As an anthelmintic, however, it is more generally prescribed than any other article in this country, and in most cases with unequivocal success, and without the production of any un- pleasant symptoms. It may be given in powder or infusion, the dose of the first of which for children is from ten to twenty grains. The infusion is by far the best mode of administra- tion; this is made with an ounce of the root to a pint of water, the dose of which is from an ounce to two ounces for a child. One of the best methods is to give a full dose at bed-time, and an active purgative in the morning, as in this way any narcotic symptoms it may display do not cause un- easiness. The most general plan is to give it in combination, espe- cially with Senna; this forms a well-known nostrum called Worm-tea, for which there are several recipes, differing only in the quantities of the ingredients. It usually purges actively, and does not excite narcotic symptoms. ‘The syrup is also an efficacious form of preparation. In the ordinary dose (one or two drachms for adults), Spi- cELIa has very little sensible effect on the system, though it may act efficaciously as an anthelmintic. In larger doses it appears to operate as an irritant to the gastro-intestinal canal, and gives rise to purging, and sometimes to vomiting, though its effects in this way are very uncertain. In poisonous doses ee. Tent nareotic symptoms already noticed. The narcotic effects are said to be less apt to occur when the medicine purges, and to be altogether obviated by combining it with cathartics. ‘he danger from its e ‘ment cannot be great, as it is In ‘it operates as a cerebro-spinant or narcotic, giving rise to vio- No 62. ‘YITIS VINIFERA. Common Wine Grape. _ VITACE. Grape-vines. No. 62. Mitts ViIRIrPERA. ~ Common Grarr Wine. Geog. Position. All the temperate parts of the world. Quality. Acrid, rather styptic. Power. Sub-astringent. Use. Intermittent and pated. fevers, and as a ssaageens BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Classification. — Orver VITACEZ. _ Linnean Classification. Crass V. Pentandria. Orpver Monogynia. Aurnorittes.— Lin. Sp. Pl. 293. Willd. Sp. Pl. I. 1180. Woodv. Med. Bor. 195. Pursh, Flor. N. A., I. 169. Lind. Flor. Med. 65. Raf. Med. Flor. IL 121. Whitlaw, Med. Disc. 38.. Lond. Disp. 631. U.S. Disp. 743. Ec. Disp. U.S. 423. Lond, Encye. Pl.174. Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med. 226. ‘Thomson, Mat. Med. *g1. Pereira, Mat. Med. II. 641. Griff. Med. Bot. 221. Gray, Bot. Text-Book, 765. Wood, Class-Book, 211. Genus” VITIS. - From Lat. vrzo, to bind, because its tendrils take hold of the neighboring ‘aate: Or from the Celtic Guwyd, a tree or shrub, The G being suppressed in pronuncia- tion according to the usage of Celtic nations, the Latins have made of it vitIs, and the English vine. Synonrmes. — Raisins secs (Fr.), ea (Ger.), Uva (It.), Passas (Sp.), Groote razynen (Dutch), Russi (Swed.), Uvas Passadas (Port.), Kishnish (Hind.), Dividetsipalava Hil (Tam.), Zabib (Arab.), Mewaz (Pers-), Zebab (Malay), Velit chamoodika ghoddid (Cyng.). Tus Essentia, CHARACTERS. Catyx. Minute, nearly entire, or five-toothed. Corouua. Petals four -five, inserted on the outside of the ee oe dise, valvate and inflexed in estivation, often wr a above and caducous. Stamens. Four - five, A ae the pease inserted on | the _ dise. ie 2 Ovary. ae two-celled. Sule one, be shot. VITIS VINIFERA, Fruir. Unicorn Blazing-star, Ague-root <¢ MELANTHACE A. Melanths. No. 76. HELONIAS DIOICA. Unicorn Root. ~* Place—United States. Quality—Not unpleasant. Power—Tonic, anthelmintic. Use—Colic, rheumatism, jaundice. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Order. Coronarizx.—Melanthacer. J. Crass VI. Hexandria. Orper Trigynia. Willd. Sp. Pl. ii. 183. Lou. Ency. Pl. 268. Linn. Sp. Pl. 456. Bigelow, Med. Bot. iii. 50. U.S. Dis. 64. Raf. Med. Flor. i. 37. Per El. Mat. Med. ii. 130. Griff. Med. Bot. 263. Wood Class Book, 559. Genus. HELONIAS. From the Greek, é\os, a marsh, where some species grow THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERS, Frorat Envetore, or Pertanth regular, in two series, each of three segments which are distinct or united me base, gener- ally involute in estivation. Sramens, Six, with extrorse anthers. Ovary. Three-celled, nine—many ovuled. Styles distinct ot wanting. Stigmas undivided. Frurr. Capsule or berry, threc-celled, gencrally with pends dehiscence. Soya With a membranous testa, and dense esky ogeaaia HELONIAS DIOICA. THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS. Hexonias. Perianth six-parted, spreading, petaloid, the seg- ments sessile, and without glands. Styles three, distinct. Cages sude three-celled, three-horned. Cells many-seeded, Calyx wanting. Corol six-parted or six-petalled, ” ge glandless. Styles dis tinct. Capsule three-celled, three-horned, few-seeded, SPECIFIC CHARACTERS, Hetontas Diorca. Stem leafy. Leaves lanceolate, radical ones oblanceolate. Raceme spiked, nodding, dicecious, Pedi- cels short, without bracts. Stamens eaitad: Segments linear. ype leafy. Racemes spiked, nodding. Pedicels short, subtracted. Filaments ise than the corol. Petals linear. Leaves lance-oblong. Generally diecious. THE ARTIFICIAL CHARACTERS, Crass Hexanpria. Stamens six. Orver Tricynta. En- dogens. Calyx and Corolla similarly developed. Flowers con- spicuous, mostly colored. Ovary many seeded. HAMODORACEA, Bloodroots. | No. %6. ALETRIS FARINOSA. Srar-Grass, Colic root. a. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. “Natural Order. Coronariw, L, Heemodoracee, A 8 _ Crass VL Hevandria, Onpee Monogynia. ALETRIS FARINOSA. limb, somewhat hexagonal, scabrous and plaited externally Stamens inserted on the base of the segments. Filaments flat. Anthers somewhat sagittate. Ovary three-lobed, pyramidal. Style formed of three connate bristles. Stigma simple. Cap- sule pyramidal, opening in three directions at the apex. Seeds very small, striated, numerous, NATURAL HISTORY. On account of the great irregularity and confusion with many medical writers on the Unicorn, Unicorn-root, Star-grass, Colic- root, &c., as two American plants of different orders, genera, and species, are simultaneously, commonly, and vulgarly called, it has been determined to designate and describe both under one and the same number (No. 76,) in the Family Flora. The PieLonise Diotca, Unicorn-root, is abundant in some of the Western States, and it is found also in Pennsylvania, New- York, and Connecticut. It grows in woodlands and meadows, delighting in a moist situation, and blossoms in midsummer. The root is perennial, rather smaller than the little finger, irre- gular, from one to two inches long, of a dirty dark color, very hard, full of little pits, rough and wrinkled, having numerous small darkish fibrous roots, which when deprived of their out- side bark somewhat resemble hog’s bristles. The end of the caudex or main root often dead or rotten; premorse. Leaves radical, pale, smooth, evergreen, lanceolate in a sort of whorl at the base of the scape. Stem or scape from eight to eighteen — inches high, upright furrowed, and terminating in a spike or tassel of white dicecious flowers. Flowers small, very numerous. greenish white, in long, terminal, spicate racemes, which are more slender and weak on the barren plants. Ovaries as long as the linear petals, subtriangular. Capsule three-furrowed, oblong, tapering at the base, opening at the top. The fertile plants are taller, more erect, but with fewer flowers. The ALerris Farinosa, Star-grass, i is founda in almost all parts of the United States, growing in poor, dry soils in open situa- tions on hills, prairies, and borders of woods, and flowers in June and July. The root is perennial, small, branched, crooked, blackish outside, brown within, premorse, intensely bitter. Stem or scape round erect, from one to two feet high, naked, except a _ ee ae few peetiercl, bracts ending in a lene rage of "white, somew. ALETRiS FARINOSA. scattered flowers, and at base surrounded with a circle of lanceos late, sessile leaves, which spring immediately from the foot and spread on the ground in the form of astar. Hence have origi- nated the popular names of star-grass, blazing star, and mealy star-wort, by which the plant is known in different parts of the country. The leaves are entire, pointed, very smooth, longitu- dinally veined, and of unequal size, the largest being about four inches in length. ; CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. The root of Hetontas Diorcra is the part principally used, and is highly celebrated as a tonic, and general strengthener of the system. Dr. Roeerrs says it relieves colic, stranguary, rheuma- tism, and jaundice. It affords an excellent female medicine, and has a powerful tendency to prevent abortion, and they who are liable to accidents of this nature, ought to make frequent use of it. Half a tea-spoonful of the powdered root may be taken three times a day, in a gill of warm water, or for ordinary use, a portion of it may be added to the bitter tonic. It is also _ highly valued in suppressed menstruation. The Unicorn-root is also an excellent remedy for coughs, con- - sumptions, and all complaints of the lungs, promoting expecto- ration and insensible perspiration. The constant use of it, how- ever, sometimes makes the mouth sore, when it must be laid aside, and some other expectorant used till the mouth gets well, and then it may be again resumed, The root of the ALerris Farrnosa, is the official portion em- ployed as medicine. It is a very bitter and valuable tonic and stomachic, promoting in small doses the appetite and digestion ; ‘but in large doses is apt to produce nausea and vomiting. Twelve grains of the powdered root is the largest dose. : The bitterness appears to reside in a resinous matter, which is fully imparted in the tincture, to alcohol, which it renders ex- tremely bitter, whilst water is rendered much less so. The = , tincture becomes turbid by the addition of water. ‘The star-grass may be given in tincture, decoction or sub- _ stance, though the first and last forms are undoubtedly the best; or it may be incorporated into cordials or syrups. It is useful in all cases of _ and loss of. em eas suns = : N° 1T. CASS TA-HIS'TVUILA. Cassia, Purging Cassia Pudding-pipe tree x: LEGUMINOS J. Leguminous Plants. ean’. Ut CASSIA FISTULA. Cassia, Purging cassia, Pudding pipe tree, §e., feu Nery Place—East Indies, Egypt, Arabia. Quality—Sweet, somewhat nauseous. _ -Power—Demulcent. Use—Obstipations of the bowels, anes caleuli. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Order. Lomentacere—L. Leguminose—J. Cuass X. Decandria. Orver Monogynia. Willd. Sp. Pl. ii. 513. Woodv. Med. Bot. 2d Ed. iii. 60. Loudon Ency. Pl. 348. Linn. Sp. Pl. 540. U.S. Dis. 186._ Stephenson and Churchill. Lindley, Flor. Med. 262. Per. 1. Mat Med. i 00% St a oe tame | Genus. ca SIA. Pe Prichee the Hebrew Resid restaeel e kactay in a Reagual and latinibed assia Synonymes,—Casse (Fr.) Rohnkassie(Ger.) Pypkassie ( Dutch.) Cassievar (Dan. Swed.) Polpa di Cassia (I) Fistularis (Sp.) Ameltas (H.) Suvernaca (San.) Konnekai (Tam.) Khyar Sheber (4rab.) Khyar Chirber (Pers.) — {Jav.) Mentus (Malay.) Sonali (Beng.) -° THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERS, Catyx. Sepals generally five, more or less united, often un- equal. Corotta. Petals five, either papilionaceous or regular, perigy- nous, Sramens. Diadelphous, monadelphous or distinct. Amthers versatile. : Ovary. Superior, single and simple. Sryle and Sitgma simple. z CASSIA FISTULA. Frurr. A legume, either continuous (one-celled) or (a loment) jointed into one-seeded cells. Seeps. Solitary or several, destitute of albumen. » THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS, Cassia, Sepals five, scarcely united at base, nearly equal. Petals five, unequal, but not papilionaceous. Stamens ten, dis- tinct. Three upper anthers often manly ; three lower ones beaked. Legume many seeded. Calyx five-sepalled. Corol five-petalled. Anthers three, lower ones beaked, and on longer incurved filaments, Legume membranaceous THE SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. t Cassia Fisruna. Trunk from forty to fifty feet high, about the size of a walnut tree. Leaves large, composed of from five to six pairs of oval and acute folicles, from three to five inches long. Flowers large, yellow, in oem hanging from the axilla of the leaves. Leaves in six pairs. Petioles glandless. Legume reniform. THE ARTIFICIAL CHARACTERS. > Crass Decanpria. Stamens ten. Orpen Monocynta Fruit, alegume, Ovary single and simple. NATURAL HISTORY. Cassta Fistuna is a native of Egypt and the East Indies, but is now naturalized in the West Indies and South America, It was known to the Arab and Greek physicians of the middle ages, and is ‘supposed to have received its name from its agreeable odor, somewhat resembling that of the celebrated spice. The tree rises to the height or forty or fifty feet, with a large trunk, covered with a soft, cineritious bark, and is much branched at the top. The leaves are composed of six pairs of _ ovate, pointed, undulated pinne, of a pale green color, with many transverse nerves, and peduncled. The stipules are pparent. The flowers which appear in June are of a zolk , placed upon long pendent terminal spikes. The leaves of ‘thus calyx are crenated, blunt and greenish. The — —— spreading and waved. om ie tees CASSIA FISTULA, filaments are long and incurved. The others exhibit large anthers, three of which are rostrated, or like the open beak of a bird, at the extremity. ‘The fruit is a long woody, dark-brown pod, about the thickness of the human thumb, and nearly two feet in length, cylindrical, with two longitudinal furrows on one side, and one on the other, and divided into numerous trans- verse cells, each containing one smooth, oval, yellowish, shining seed, with red lines dividing it lasgitadinally, imbedded in soft black pulp. The fruit of the Cassta Pikes gi is known in commerce by the name of Cassia pods, which are said to undergo a kind of fer- mentation, to prepare them for keeping. For this purpose they are collected before they are quite ripe, and carried into a close room, in which is prepared a layer of palm leaves and straw six inches thick, on which they are laid, the room closed, and the next day the heap sprinkled with water, and this process re- peated. In this way they are treated for forty days till they be- come black. Those which are brought to this market come principally from the West Indies, packed in casks and cases, but a superior kind is brought from the Hast Indies, and is easily distinguished by its smaller, smooth pod, and by the greater blackness of its pulp. The heaviest pods, and those in which the seeds do not rattle on being shaken, are the best, and contain the greatest quantity of pulp. The tree will thrive in loam and peat, and euttings will root in sand under a hand glass, 1 in moist heat. CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES. The pulp of Cassta Fisrvta is the only part employed in medi. cine, it is of a very dark-brown color, of a very faint and sick odor, and of a sweet mucilaginous and sub-acid taste. It is apt to become sour if long exposed to the air, or mouldy if kept in a damp place. It is viscid, almost entirely soluble in water, and partially so in alcohol and sulphuric ether. The watery infu- sion, which shows a tendency to gelatinize, has when filtered the color of the pulp, and yields a precipitate with alcohol and the solution of the superacetate of lead. The alcholic and ethe- rial tinctures are not affected by the addition of water, although when they are evaporated a thin pellicle of resin remains. No alteration is produced on the alcoholic and watery infusions | a a infusion of _ nitrate of silver, ee of _— nor ees ae CASSIA FISTULA. nitric nor sulphuric acids; but chlorine throws down a yellow- colored precipitate, which is insoluble in ether. Hence there is reason for concluding with Vanque.in, that this pulp contains sugar, gelatin gluten, mucus, a small portion of resin, etxractive, and some coloring matter. Cassia pulp is a gentle laxative, and well adapted for children and very delicate females. In small doses it is mild and agree- able, and in larger ones purgative, but from the quantity required to produce this latter effect, it is apt to occasion nausea, flatu- lence, and griping. To assist its operation and prevent the griping, it is usually conjoined with some neutral salt and an aromatic. It does not appear to possess any advantage over the pulp of prunes, and is not as agreeable. It is, however, seldom used in this country, and as seldom in England. The root also contains a bitter principle, and has been em- ployed as a substitute for Peruvian bark. It contains a peculiar principle, which has been examined by Caventon, who regards it as a powerful diuretic. It forms soluble combinations with the mineral acids. The leaves and the flowers are also purgative. Their employment is indicated when in the course of a phleg- masia it is necessary to keep the bowels open, but their adminis- tration is contra-indicated in cases of hypochondria and in atonic affections. Conrectio Casstm Fistrutm, Confection of Cassia. Take of fresh cassia pulp half a pound, manna two ounces, tamarind pulp an ounce, syrup of roses half a pound. Bruise the manna, then dissolve it in the syrup by the heat of a water bath, and having mixed in the pulp, evaporate down to a proper consistence. Evectuarium Casst® Fisrunz. LElectuary of Cassia, Take of cassia pulp four parts, tamarind pulp, manna, of each one part, syrup of damask roses four parts. Bruise the manna in a mortar, and dissolve it in the syrup by means of a gentle heat, then add the pulps, and by a continued heat reduce the mixture to a proper consistence. _ Or another. Take of freshly extracted cassia pulp half a pound, manna two ounces, tamarind pulp an ounce, syrup of orange half a pound. Bruise the manna, then dissolve it in the - syrup by means of a moderate heat and add the pulp; lastly, eraperee slowly the mixture to a proper consistence. _ This electuary is gently purgative, and is used to relieve : Sidiseal, costiveness, as a purge for children, and as a vehicle for : ay Ses See . | io. A * 4 ay x. a 2 ee ™m >» a N° 78. PAMAX @iLTN QU If TF ODI Ro Gins eng Red-berry. Five Fin gers XC. : _ ARATIACER. a r ali ta ds. N. ue 8. PANAX QUINQUEFoLIUM. Bees Red-berry, Five fingers, Me Fc. ¢—North America, iS Quality—Sweetish, aromatic. _ Power—Stimulant, antispasmodic, Use—Nervous affections, debility. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Order. Hederacern—L. Araliacen—J. Crass V. Pentandria, OrvEer Digynia. Willd. Sp. Pl. iv. 1124. Woodv. Med. Bot. 2d Ed. 149 t 58. Loudon Ency. P, ey Bigelow Med. Bot. ii. 82._Linn. Sp. Pi. 393. _ U.S. Dis. 530. Raff. Med. Bot 53. Per. El. Mat. Med. ii. 474. Griff. Med. Bot. 344. Kost. Mat. Med. 518, Tor, and Gray Fl. i. 646. Wood. C. B. 295 — PANAX. From the Greek Tay all, and axas a remedy supposed to be a panacea or universal remedy. Synonymrs.—Ginseng d@Amerique (Fr.) Ginsang (Jt.) Kraftwurzel (Ger.) THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERS. @aryx. Superior, entire, or toothed. Corotta, Petals five—ten deciduous, rarely wanting, valvate in eestivation. Sramens. Equal in number to the petals, and alternate with them. Roo may be given in powdr, i in era of half a M ye N° 80. | CHELONE GLABRA, Balmony. Snake head. Shel] Flower Xc. SCHROPULARIACE®. Fig wor ts. CHELONE GLABRA. Swaxe Heap, Salt Rheum weed, Balmony, Shell-flower, Place—North America, Quality—Unpleasant, sicken Power—Tonic, laxative. 2 Use—Fever, jaundice, del ty. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Crass XIV. Didynamia. Orvder Angiospermia. Natural Order. Personate.—L. Schropulariacex,—ZJ. Swain. acy Pl. 516. Linn. Sp. Pl. 748. Raf. Med. Flor. ii.117. Per. Mat. Med. Griff, Med. Bot. 519. Kost. Mat. Med. 456. T. Flor. 243, Wood c. 400. Genus. CHELONE. From the Greek y:\ovn, a tortoise, to the back of which the Heleset of the present genus has been faneifully compared. Synonyurs.—Galane or tortue (F.) Die schildblume (Ger.) Schildbloem = Skiolblomster (Dan.) Skoldblomster (Swed.) THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERS. Catyx. Sepals, four or five, unequal, more or less united at base, inferior, persistent. Corotua. Bilabiate, personate or otherwise irregular, the lobes imbricate in estivation, Sramens. Four—didynamous rarely with the rudiment of the - fifth, sometimes two only, the three others either pppunen tary, or wholly wanting. CHELONE GLABRA. Ovary. Free—two-cslled, many-seeded. Style simple. Stigma two-lobed. Frurr. Capsule two-celled, tw-valved, with central placente. Seeps. Indefinite, albuminous. Embryo straight. THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS, Cuetone. Calyx deeply five-parted, with three bracts at base. Corolla inflated, bilabiate, the fifth filament abortive, smooth above, shorter than the rest. Anthers woolly. Cap- sule valves entire. Seeds broadly membranacious, winged. Calyx five-cleft or five-sepalled. three-bracted. Coro?. Ringent, inflated, the upper lip emarginate-obtuse, under lip slightly three-cleft. The rudiment of a smooth filament, between and shorter than the two tallest stamens. Anthers woolly Capsule two-celled, two-valved. Seeds with membranaceous margins. THE SPECIFIC CHARACTERS, CueLone Guasra. Smooth. Leaves opposite, oblong-lan- ceolate, acuminate, serrate. Flowers densely spiked. a opposite, —— scuninat serrate. Sg “aaa densely-flow- _- THE ARTIFICIAL CHARACTERS. : Crass Dipynamta. Stamens four, two of iam leaber than the other two. Orver Anciospermta. Seeds in a pericarp. Calyz inferior, Herbs. Herbage green. Seeds many. Calyx imbricate in wstivation. NATURAL HISTORY. Cuevone is a North American genus, consisting of but few species, all herbaceous plants with opposite leaves, and sub- t’mbricately spiked, terminal flowers having the lower lip of the _ corolla bearded internally. They differ in the form and insertion _ of the leaves and in the color of the flowers, which vary from pure white to purplish. They are all handsome plants, with singular ornamental and large blossoms, but inodorous, and shaped much like the head of a “miakees the mouth open and tongue extended, . They abound in most parts of the United States in wet situations, 5 : lear brooks and waters, and blossom from July until late in the _ Autumn, They are of ei culture i in : soil, or loam al d a little peat proj ivid: : CHELONE GLABRA. opposite, of a dark and shining green above, with irregular serratures and sessible or nearly so. Flowers terminal in a dense short spike. Each flower sessile, and furnished with three bracts, which are ovate, acute, and entire. Calyx with five unequal imbricated segments, oblong and obtuse. Corolla white, often tinged with red, inflated, contracted at the mouth, with short gaping lips. Filaments hairy. Style long, exsert, bending downwards, For medical purposes, the plant should be collected in clear, dry weather, and as soon as it is in bloom, as the leaves fre- quently become mildewed after that time. It should be dried in the sun, or in a warm chamber, or loft, and carefully guarded from a moist, or damp atmosphere, or it will is a = or black color, CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. The best detailed account of the properties of Cuttows Guapar is given by Rafinesque, who appears to have been the first also who introduced this plant into notice. He was indebted to Dr. Lawrence of New Lebanon, and the Doctor to the Indians and Shakers. The whole plant may be used, but the leaves only are pre- ferred ; these are extensively bitter, and furnish one of the most important and strongest ingredients to the best bitters, without any aromatic smell, and very little astringency. They are said to be tonic, cathartic, and hepatic, but no certain information = has been afforded on the subject. No analysis has been made — of them, but they appear to contain, gallic acid, a peculiar 3 resinous substance, similar to pierine and aloes, of a black color, and very bitter taste, lignine, &c. They communicate their properties to both water and alcohol. Wine is the best men- strum, but it becomes intolerably bitter. Snakehead is useful in many diseases, fevers, jaundice, hepa- titis, eruptions of the skin, &e. In small doses it is laxative. but in full doses, it purges actively, acting powerfully on the liver, and removing the yellowness of the skin in jaundice and liver diseases. The dose is a drachm of the powdered leaves three times a day. The wine of it in small repeated doses has _ nearly the same effect, although neither so speedily or violently. The Indians use a strong decoction of the whole plant in a variety of Sotaeipiatty and it is held i in much esteem t them. is CHELONE GLABRA. The leaves make a vermifuge, which is safe in common cases. It should be administered in infusion, continued for a time, and followed by a suitable purge. An ounce of the dried leaves is sufficient in most cases for children. “As I have discovered,” says Dr. Curtis of Ohio, “in the snakehead no tendency either to open or constipate the bowels, I call it a pure, neutral bitter. As bitterness is in its nature stimulant, it is of course deobstruent, and finally restorative. It should therefore be used freely as a general equalizer of the circulation and purifier of the blood.” The following formula is highly recommended :— Take of pulverized poplar-bark six pounds, golden seal, cloves, ginger, and prickly-ash bark, each a pound and a half, snake- head a pound, cayenne three quarters of a pound, and sugar seven pounds. Mix thoroughly and sift. If the prickly-ash is omitted, the quantity of cayenne may be somewhat increased. It is usual to add about one-twentieth part of cayenne to the tonic or restorative preparation. The above preparation is found to be one of the best medicines in use for restoring the tone of the digestive organs. It is an excellent remedy in jaundice, dyspepsia, worms, flatulency, piles, headache, giddiness, pains in the stomach and bowels, diarrhea, gravelly complaints, strangury, gonorrhea, fluor albus, heart-burn, rickets, mercurial salivation, consumption, and the whole train of chronic diseases, It is a laxative, and keeps the. bowels open, unless they are obstinately costive. Its use would be improper during the continuance of a violent febrile or in- _ flammatory affection, but as soon as the disease is subdued it se Ne @1. AYPERICTUM PERFORATYM. aie a HYPERICACEAE. St. John’s-worts. No. 81. HYPERICUM PERFORATUM. Common St. Joun’s-worr. Place—Europe. Quality—Balsamic. Power—Astringent, anthelminthic, Use—Hamoptysis, hypochondriasis, phthisis, and ule cers, tumors, &c. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Order. Rotacee—L Hypericaceae.—J. Crass XVIII. Polyadelphia. Orvrr Polyandria. Linn. Sp. Pl. 1105. Willd. Sp. Pl. iii. 1453. Cullen. Mat. Med.173. ‘Loud. Ency. Pl. 658. Raf. Med. Flor. ii. 229. U.S. Disp. 1263. . and G. Flor. i. 160. Gri Med. Bot. 156. Beach. Fam. Ph. 682. Lind. Flor. Med. 117. Pursh. Flor. M. A. ii. 377. Wood, Class Book,184. 2 = : Genus. HYPERICUM. A name of unknown meaning. Yrnorxov, Dioscorides. ; Synonymes.—Le millepertuis (Fr.) Das Johannis Kraut (Ger.) St. Jans Kruid (Dutch.) Pilatro (Z) Corazoncillo (Sp.) Melfurade (Port.) Sweioboi (Russ.) THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERS, Catyx. Sepals, four—five, distinct or cohering, persistent, unequal, dotted. Corona. Petals four—five, hypogynous, estivation twisted, veins oblique, dotted. a Stamens. Hypogynous, indefinite in three or more parcels _ Anthers versatile. ee ee Ovary. Single, superior. Style slender. Stigma simple. = HYPERICUM PERFORATUM. Fruit. A capsule or berry, many seeded Seeps. Indefinite, minute. THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS. Hypericum. Sepals five, connected at base, subequal, leaf-like, Petals five, oblique. Stamens indefinite, or numerous (sometimes few) united at base into three—five parcels with no glands between them. Styles three—five, distinct or united at base, persistent. Calyx five—parted, divisions equal, subovate. Corol five—petalled. Filaments often united at the base in three or five sets. Styles two—five. Capsule membranaceous, roundish, with a number of cells equal to the number of styles, The bases of the filaments are often in groups, when they are not united. THE SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Hypericum Perroratum. Flowers with three styles. Sem two-edged, branched. Leaves elliptical, with pellucid dots, Sepals lanceolate, half as long as the petals. Segments of the calyx lanceolate. ' Erect, branching. Stem two edged. Leaves oblong, obtuse, transparently punctate. Paniele terminal brachiate, leafy. Petals longer than the acute, lanceolate calyx. THE ARTIFICIAL CHARACTERS, Crass Ponyapeupma. Stamens united by their filaments into more than two sets. Orper Potyanpria. Leaves opposite punctate. Flowers yellow. Fruit a membranaceous capsule. NATURAL HISTORY. This extensive Genus Hypericum, contains herbaceous, or shrubby species, found in all parts of the world, and of which between thirty to forty are natives of North America. They all possess medicinal properties in a greater or less degree, propor- tionate to the abundance or otherwise of the oil, bearing glands of the flowers and leaves. Certain species having a berry in- stead of a capsular fruit, have been separated under the generic _uame of Vismia. These are principally natives of tropical climates, and furnish a yellow product very analogous to gamboge. _ Hypericum Perroratum is a hardy plant, a native of Europe, _ but has been introduced on this continent, prevailing almost HYPERICUM PERFORATUM. as it has become very abundant, and is not only very difficult to eradicate, but extremely exhausting to the ground. It has a peculiar balsamic odor, Its taste is bitter, resinous and somewhat astringent. The root is perennial, fusiform and tortuous, The stem is ancipital, about eighteen inches in height, much branched, curved below, and erect above. The leaves are closely sessile, of an ovate elliptical shape, of a light green color, and conspiciously marked with numerous pellucid dots. The flowers are of a bright yellow color, arranged in a terminal corymb, ‘The calyx is per- sistent, and is composed of five acute-lanceolate sepals, united at base. The corolla is of five-ovate, obtuse, sessile petals, much longer than the sepals, of a yellow color, with numerous dark glandular spots at the edges. The stamens are numerous, and divided into three sets, The anthers are small. The styles are three with very small stigmas. The fruit is a somewhat globose capsule, with three cells, and opening naturally by three valves. Seeds numerous, very small. Everlasting John’s-wort is apt to flourish undisturbed and fill the earth with seeds or roots, in readiness to spread and grow whenever the earth is moved for their reception. This plant has taxed the ingenuity of vigilant farmers in effecting its removal. It should never be allowed to perfect its seeds, and if they are ever so permitted, the farmer has suffered an enemy to steal a march upon him, which may require much time and labor to subdue. CHEMICAL AND ‘MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. 4 No complete analysis of the cen Perroratum has ever yet been made, but from the experiments of Mr. Blair (Am. Jour. Pharm, ii, 23.) its active constituents appear to be an acrid, resinous substance, pervading the whole plant, a red oil, furnished by the gland on the petals, and some tannin. Hy- pericum is not recognized as officinal by the United States Phar- macopeia, but is so by many of the European authorities as a constituent of a variety of syrups, tinctures, &c. The St. John’s-wort was, notwithstanding, held in high per mation by the earlier writers on the Materia RE and numerous virtues attributed to it particularly as a febrifuge and anthelmintic. ‘The leaves, flowers, and seeds stamped (says Gerard, 1590), and put into a glass with olive oil, and set in the warm sun for several weeks together, and then strained from HYPERICUM PERFORATUM. those herbs, and the like quantity now put in and sunned in like manner, doth make an oil of the color of blood, which is a most precious remedy for deep wounds and sures, and those that are through the body, for sinews that are pricked, or any wound made with a venomed weapon. I am accustomed (continues Gerard), to make a compound oil hereof, the making of which, any one shall receive at my hands, because that I know in the world there is not a better, no, not natural balsam itself, for I dare undertake to cure any such wound as absolutely in each respect, if not soaner and better, as any man whatsoever, shall or may with natural balsam.” The plant still enjoys much reputation in some parts of Europe in the treatment of many diseases, hysteria, mania, intermittent fever, dysentery, gravel, hemorrhages, pectoral com- plaints, worms, and jaundice. It was also formerly held in high estimation for the cure of demoniacs, and the superstition still lingers among the vulgar in some countries. At present the plant is scarcely used except as a domestic remedy. The flow- ering summits are the parts employed, though the unripe capsules are possessed of the same virtues, in an equal degree, and the seeds are said to be even stronger. It is difficult to ascertain its exact value as a remedy, but from its sensible properties, and from the character of the complaints in which it has been thought useful, it may be considered independently of its astringency, as somewhat analogous in medicinal power, to the turpentines. Whatever may be the real value of this plant however, as a medicinal agent, it deserves attention, and that a fair trial should be made of it, the testimonies in its favor are so — strong that it can scarcely be as inert as is now supposed, and as is observed by Cullen (Mat. Med., 173), ‘we should not be so audacious as to neglect it, for by the sensible qualities it appears active, and there are many well vouched testimonies of its virtues, particularly of its diuretic powers.” St. John’s-wort is said to exercise an injurious effect on cattle by inflaming the’skin wherever the hair is white. Although — this belief is very general, it is by no means certain, that the injury is owing to this plant. Is it not rather attributable to a species of Euphorbia which in almost all cases is found growing where the: to sii pine me ee acrid jaice of the former ee ee Be 7 _-hheeotthaee and chronic rheumatism. es oe Se a4 — oo pickle, the flower buds of the = CAPPARIS SPINOSA. esteem throughout Europe. In Italy the unripe fruit is prepared in the same way as the flower buds; both are highly acrid and burning to the taste. In the isles of the Mediterranean and near Toulon, the flower-buds of the Carer are gathered just before they begin to expand, which forms a daily occupation during six months, when the plants are in a flowering state. As the buds are gathered they are thrown into a cask among as much salt and vinegar as is sufficient to cover them, and as the supply of Capers is increased more vinegar is added. When the’ Caper ° season closes, the casks are emptied and the buds sorted accord- ing to their size and color, the smallest and greenest being reckoned the best, and put into small casks of fresh vinegar for commerce. They will in this state keep fit for use for five or six years. The best Capers are called Nonpareilles, and the second best Capucines. Cappares Spenesa contains a milky juice which is extremely acrid, and the whole plant possesses the properties of a drastic purge ; but the oil of the seed is the only part used in regular practice. This oil is colorless, inodorous and when recent nearly insipid, but it speedly becomes rancid, and acquires a dangerous acrimony. ‘The oil may be extracted by expression, or by the agency of alcohol or of either. In the first case the bruised seeds are pressed in a canvay or linen bag, and the oil which escapes is purified by decanting it’ from the whitish flocculent matter which it deposits upon standing, and by subsequent filtration. By the latter process the bruised seeds are digested in alcohol or macerated in ether, and the oil is obtained by filtering and evaporating the solution. This oil is a powerful purge, operating with much activity in a dose varying from five to ten drops. It was, some years since, much used by certain Italian and French Physicians who did not find it to produce inconvenient irritation of the stomach and bowels. Its want of taste and the smallness of the dose recom- mended it especially in the cases of infants. It was said to be less acrid and irritating than the Croton oil, over which it also had the advantage of greater cheapness, Some trials which have been made with it on this side of the Atlantic, have not xe tended to confirm these favorable reports. It was found un- - _ Certain in its cathartic effect, and very liable to vomit. (Scatter- _ good, Jour. of the Phil. Col. of Pharm. 1V.124). a t may be given in pill with the crumb 0 "bread, or in emul- aes Ne 95. CORIANDRUM SATIVUM. Coriander. ga ee UMBELDIFERA. Umbellifers. N° 95. CORIANDRUM SATIVUM. CoRIANDER. Place—FEurope. Quality—Nauseous. Power—Carminative, driving away milk. Use—The seeds in hysterics, tertian ague. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Order. Umbellate.—J. Umbellifere. —J. Cuiass V. Pentandria. Orper Digynia. Willd. Sp. Pl. 1448. Woodv. Med. Bot. 137. Smith, Flor. Brit. 320. Louden, Ency. Pl. 208. Lind!. Flor. Med. 58. U. 8. Dis. 275. Per. El. Mat. Med. UJ. 508 Gulf. Mat. Med. 341. Wood. C. B. 294. Genus. CORIANDRUM. From the Greek xopis,a bug; on account of the smell of the leaves. } Synoxymes.—Coriandre( F:), Koriander Saamen (G.). Koriander (Dutch, Swed. and Dan.), Koriandor (Pol.), Coriandro (Port.), Coriandro (I), Semilla de Clantro (8.), Cottamillie (Tam.), Mety (Malay), Kezereh (Arab.), Kitauez (Pers.), D’hanya (#1), D’amyaca (San.) THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERS. Catyx adhering to the ovary, entire or five-toothed. Corotta. Petals, five, usually inflected at the point, imbricate in estivation. : if Sramens. Five, alternate with the petals and inserted with them upon the disk. pee Pe Ovary, inferior, two-celled surmounted by the fleshy disk, which bears the stamens and petals. Styles, two : distinct, ec united at their thickened bases. Stigma, simple. ee oa CORIANDRUM SATIVUM. Frurr, dry, consisting of two coherent carpels, separating from each other by their faces (commissure,) into two halves (merocarps). Seeps, Concave, numerous. ¢q THE SECONDARY .CHARACTERS. Corranprum. Calyx with five conspicuous teeth. Petals, obcordate, inflected at the point, outer ones radiate, bifid. Fruit, globose. Carpels, whering with. five depressed, primary ribs, and four secondary, more prominent ones. Seeds concave on the face. Seeds, sub-spherical. Germ spherical. Perianth five-toothed. Petals cordate-in flexed, outer ones largest. Involucre one-leaved or wanting. THE SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Corranprum Sativum. Leaves, bipinnate, lower ones with broad cuneate leaflets, wpper with linear ones. Carpels hemis- pherical. Fruit globose. Calyx and style permanent. THE ARTIFICIAL CHARACTERS. Ciass, PEnvanpria. Stamens, five, Orver Dieynia. Poly-$ petalous, Seedstwo. Flowersin umbels. Herbs with hollow stems. NATURAL HISTORY. Corianver is mentioned by Moses (16 Ex. 31.) “ And the house of Israel] called the name thereof, Manna, and it was like Coriander Seed, white ; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.” The plant is an annual, a native of Italy and the southern parts of Europe. It is occasionally found wild in some parts of the United States, but is cultivated in gardens owing to the abundant use of it for medicinal purposes. It delights i in a sandy loam. Itis raised from. seeds which may be sown in February _ or March, when the weather is mild and dry; and the quantity requisite for a bed four feet wide by six in length, to be sown in _ rows, is halfan ounce, and when sown in drills, they may be nine eae ees —_ the seed buried Sema inch. Where a con- — CORIANDRUM SATIVUM. stant succession is required, small successive monthly sowings . will be necessary in Spring and Summer, as the plants in those Seasons soon run to seed. There should be also small sowings in the fall, to stand the Winter, under the defence of a frame. The plants are to remain where sown. The stem is ereet, about two feet in height, branching divari- cated, round, smooth and obscurely striated. The leaves are compound, the lower ones pinnated, with gashed wedge-shaped, somewhat rounding leaflets and the upper thrice-ternate, with linear-pointed segments. Both the umbels and the umbellules are many rayed, with an involucre of one linear leaf and involucels of three lanceolate narrow leaves, all on one side. The flowers are of a white or reddish color. The calyx consists of five leaves. The Petals are five also, oblong and inflected at the tips, but those of the flowers of the circumference have the outermost petals larger and not inflected. The fruit commonly termed coriander seeds (fructus seu semtna coriandrt} is globular, about the size of white pepper, of a grayish yellow color, and is finely or obscurely ribbed. It consists of two hemispherical mericarps, adherent by their concave surfaces. Hach mericarp has five primary ridges, which are depressed and wavy, and four secondary ridges more prominent and carinate. The channels are without vitte, but the commissure has two. This form of the fruit distinguishes Cortanprum Sativum, cortander, from all the other species of — Umbelliferse. The plant flowers in June, and ripens its seed in August, — CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. The dried seeds of the Corrannrum Sarivum have a grateful, aromatic odor, and a moderately warm, pungent taste, qualities which depend on.an essential] oi], that can be obtained separate — by the distillation of the seeds with water. Their active principles are completely extracted by alcohol, but only partially by water. This oil (Olewm Cortandri) is yellowish, smells strongly and pretty agreeably of the Coriander, and is the source of the odor, taste and medicinal properties of the fruit, which, like | the other carminative umbelliferous fruits are aromatic and stimu- lant. The whole plant when green has an abominably foetid ador if bruised, which extends even to the fruit. ‘It is cultivated ma private gardens chiefly for the tender leaves which are used in e soups and salads, Ona large scale it is cultivated for the seed. CORIANDRUM SATIVUM. which is extensively used by confectioners, druggists and dis- tillers, in large quantities. The seeds are sometimes used in flatulencies, but principally to cover the unpleasant taste, and correct the griping quality of some cathartics. Dr. Cullen considered coriander as more powerfully correcting the odor and taste of Senna than any other aromatic ; and hence it was formerly a constituent of the compound infusion of Senna, though now ginger is substituted for it. It is only employed in medicine as an adjuvant or corrigent. It is a constituent of the confectio senne, which when properly prepared is a mild and pleasant purgative, and well adapted for those who are afflicted with habitual costiveness. CorrANDRUM Sativum is carminative, and therefore the follow- ing observations respecting medicines of that class are introduced for the use of the general reader. Carminatives are those medicines which usually dispel flatulency of the stomach and bowels by stimulating the inner coat of these organs. They in general produce only temporary relief, for if the diseased con- dition of the alimentary canal be not removed by appropriate remedies it will very speedily become again distended with flatus. The articles generally employed as carminatives are infusions or tinctures of the aromatic seeds and vegetables. The principal carminatives are ginger, cardamon, anise and caraway seeds ; several of the essential oils, as those of peppermint, anise, ctuiaier: and juniper. Ardent spirits and especially aromatic tinctures. The use of these articles is decidedly injurious in every instance in which the stomach or intestines are in the least degree inflamed, or when their sensibility is morbidly increased, They are however very favorite prescriptions with nurses and mothers, to allay the gripings with which young children are so frequently afflicted, and under these circumstances a great deal of mischief is caused by their indiscreet ailministration. Whole- some food, cleanliness of person, protection from cold and damp, and sufficient exercise will most generally prevent a flatulent _ state of the bowels of infants ; when, however, it depends upon - the the disease « of these parts carminatives will seldom do much good but will often i increase the a of f the little patient. COCCULUS PALMATUS., ‘The Colombo Plant. Columbo. MUNISPERMACER. Menispermads. No 96. COCCULUS PALMATUS. CotumBa Puanr, Columbo, Place—aAfrica. Quality—Bitter. Power—aAntisceptic, tonic, Use—Indigestion, diarrhoea, fevers, cholera. BOTANICAL ANALYSIS. Natural Order. Sarmentacer—L. Menispermacex.—J. Crass XXII. Diecta. Orper Hezandria. Willd. Sp. Pi. 824. Woody. Med. Bot. V. 21. Stephenson and Churchill 160. Loud. Ency. Pl. 844. U.S. Dis. 261. Griff. Med. Bot. 103. Per. El. Mat. Med. If. 733. | Beach. Fam. Ph. 662. Kost. Mat. Med. 453. Wood, Class Book, 151. Lind. Flor. Med. 369. De Candolle. Syst. Nat. I. 515. Genus COCCULUS. From Coccus, the name of the well known dyers’ insect, and has been applied to this Genus on account of the resemblance which has been found to exist between that insect and the scarlet berries of the plant. Synonymes.—Colombo [F-}, Kolusiboveutiel [G.], Columba (t}, ], Raizade Colombe { Sp.], Kalumbo [ Port. ], Kalumb [ Mozambique], Columbo vaye. (Tan.] THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERS, Catyx. Sepals, three-cight in a double series, two-four in each, imbricated in zstivation, hypogynons, deciduous. Corotia. Petals, one-eight, hypogynous, — as many as the pele, rarely wanting or none. COCCULUS PALMATUS. Stamens distinct or monadelphous, equal in number to the Petals and opposite to them, or three or four times as many. Anthers, innate and consisting of four globose lobes, Ovary, usually solitary, sometimes two-four Fruit, a drupe, globose-reniform. Serbs, lunate and compressed THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS, Coccutus. Flowers unisexual, dicecious. Ca/yz of twelve sepals, in four series, with two three or more close pressed bracteoles. Mares. Stamens six, or rarely three opposite to the inner sepals, distinct. Anthers two-celled, terminal, dehising, vertically. Filaments, either filiform or thickened at the apex. FremaLes, Ovaries, three, six or numerous, Drupes one to six or numerous, one-celled, one-seeded. Peduwncles axillary or rarely lateral. Sepals and Petals ternate usually in two, rarely in three rows. Stamens, six distinct, opposite the petals. Drupes barried, one to six, generally oblique, reniform, somewhat compressed, one-seeded. Cotyledons distant. THE SPECIFIC CHARACTERS, Coccutus Patmatus Flowers small, green. Calyx of six _ petals in two series with bracteoles. Petals six obovate, half- enclosing the oppesite stamens. Anthers terminal, two-celled. Ovaries three, united at the base. Drupes hairy. Leaves cordate, flve—seven lobed. Lobes entire, acuminate somewhat hairy on both sides. Stem and Germ with glandular hairs. THE ARTIFICIAL CHARACTERS, Crass Diacta. Stamens apart from the pistils in different flowers upon different plants. Orper Hexanpria. Herbs, exogens, dicecious. Fruit adrupe, Stamens more than ten. Leaves peltate. Climbing snffruticose plant. Racemes axillary. NATURAL HISTORY. This plant is a native of the Mozambique, west of Africa. Cibo is mentioned as.a locality of it. It there grows: spontane- _eusly, and is not. cultivated by the natives. The manner of pre- _ paring the root is to remove it from the earth during the dry season which is in March, and after washing it to cut it into pieces, usually horizontal, and then dry them in the shade. The COCCULUS PALMATUS. offsets are selected in preference, The pieces are marked by a thick ring on the outside, corresponding to the dense vertical substance, contrasting with the contracted interior, which is formed of more spongy parenchyma. The surface is marked by concentric rings, Redi, in 1677, first mentioned the properties of the root of the Co.umsa. It was not however introduced into Europe for a long time after, and then little was known of its origin. Commerson, in 1770, procured some specimens from the garden of Mr. Poivre, of the Isle of France, and sent them to Europe. From these Lamarik has given his description of the plant, under the name of Menispermum palmatum. Mr. Ferton. a resident of Madras, obtained a living specimen of the plant in 1805, and Mr. Berry in the Astatic Researches figured and described it. In 1830 Sir Wm. J, Hooker published a complete description both of the — male and female plants in the Botanic Magazine. This was made from the drawings sent to England by Mr. Telfair of Mauritius who obtained living roots from Captain Owen, pro. cured by him when on the survey of the eastern coast of Africa. From the name Colombo root it was supposed to be the product of Ceylon, but this is not the case as has been stated by Shurr- berg and Dr. Rajuct. The name by which it is known in India is Kalumb. Columba is brought into the market in bales, and sometimes in cases, and as it constitutes an article of traffic in the East it may be bought in most of the great marts of that portion of the world. Usually Bombay, Madras or Calcutta, are the indirect sources of it. The pieces are frequently much perforated evidently by worms and not as has been supposed by stringing to facilitate its drying. Those pieces which have the fewest worm-holes, the brightest color, and are solid and heavy, are the best. It is said that the root of white bryony, tinged yellow with the tincture of columba has been fradulently substituted for this root. : CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. Cotumsa root has a very slight aromatie odor and a bitter taste It breaks with a starchy fracture and is easily pulverized. Water at 212° takes up one-third of its weight, and the infusion has all the sensible qualities of the root. These are also extracted by aleohol, but proof spirit is the best menstraum, ‘The infusion is not altered by solutions of sulphate of iron, nitrate of silver, COCCULUS PALMATUS, muriate of mercury, and tartarized antimony, but a copious pre- cipitate is produced by the infusion of galls, and yellow cinchona bark, by asctate and superacetate of lead, oxymuriate of mercury and lime-water. Hence Columba root was erroneously supposed to contain cinchonia. M. Planche found it to contain a large proportion of a peculiar animal substance; a yellow, bitter, resinous matter, and one-third of its weight of starch. By re- peated distillation, he also obtained a volatile oil, and from the residue malate of lime, and sulphate of lime. By treating columba root with alcohol of 0.835, then reducing the tincture by distillation to one-third, allowing the residue to stand until erystals form in it, and afterwards purifying these, Mr. Wittstock of Berlin procured a new salt, to which he gave the name of columbtna, and which he supposes to be the active principle of columba root. It is inodorous, extremely bitter, neither acid nor alkaline, and scarcely soluble in water or in alcohol. The acetic acid is its proper menstruum. Columba root is a useful antisceptic and tonic. It is frequently employed with much advantage in diarrheeas arising from a redundant secretion of bile and in bilious remittent fever, and cholera, in which it generally checks the vomiting. It also allays the nausea and vomiting which accompany pregnancy, and according to Percival, it is equally servicable in stopping the severe diarrhoea and vomiting which sometimes attend dentition. Denman found it more usefal than cinchona ia the low stage of puerperal fever. As a tonic, unaccompanied with astringency, and possessing little stimulus, it has been recommended in phthisis and hectic fever, to allay irritability and strengthen the digestive organs, and in dyspepsia. It may be given combined with aromatics, orange-peel, opiates and alkaline or neutral salts as circumstances may indicate or require. The powder in com- bination wiih rhubarb and sulphate of potassa is found exceed- ingly serviceable in mesenteric fever. An ointment made with the powder has been used in tinea capitis, and to destroy vermin in the hair. Rubbed up with lard in the proportion of ten grains to the ounce, it ee cures tinea capitis in less than a month _ It is given in powder, or in infusion or tincture. When boiled _ in water the starch is dissolved, and a turbid thick solution is _ ‘produced, a decoction is therefore objectionable, ‘The dose of the powdered root is from fifteen grains to half a eto, repose 2 three or gees cae oe ee PROSPECTUS OF GOOD’S FAMILY FLORA * AND MATERIA MEDICA BOTANICA. A PERIODICAL. _ . Twelve Numbers form a Part, published Quarterly, in January, March, June, September and December pb eo year, and these Parts pe @ Volume. Sabsoription’ Pive Dol. lars per annum, tu advance. Tue first volume and several parts also of the second volume of the Family Flora being now published, the public, as well as the profession, are, we trust, in possession of sufficient materials to form a judgment of the character of the whole. We cannot but feel exceedingly flattered by the expression of praise that has been bestowed upon the work by those who are the most competent to form an opinion on the subject. The approval of the press has also been highly gratifying. The following plan has been adopted in describing the plants illustrated in this work. compat _ actually attempted some! , CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME OF GOOD’s | FAMILY FLORA. EXTRA PART. TITLE*‘AND FRONTISPIECE . . yr . ey r : oe | ComMENpbaTIons, &c. . - : ‘: ‘ ‘ ' “ ; ‘ : iii TABLE OF ConTENTS . : 5 ‘ S : ‘ : : : aoe InTRopUcTION To THE Stupy or Botany . ., eS, vii MARCH, OR SPRING PART. NO. Podophyllum peltatum. May-apple, Wild Mandrake. . . 49 Daphne Mtzereum. Mezereon, Spurge Olive. a Eupatorium perfoliatum. Boneset, PONG, wg ee ee Asarum Canadense. Canada Snakeroot, Coltsfoot. ke ee oo Arum trippyllum. Dragon-root, Wild ie ee Mentha piperita. Peppermint. . . . . .. ‘ Convolvulus scammonia. Scammony, Syrian Bindweed. . . =. se Datura stramonium. Thorn-a le, Jamestown-weed. . ‘ é : 56 Coptis trifolia. Goldthread, ‘Ment-rovt. sic. apes ay eee q : — candidum. White Lily. ay Se ee pocynum androsxmifolium. Dogsbane, Bitter-root. > : A : . 59 Gentiana lutea. Yellow Gentian... =. wg wtstizs JUNE, OR SUMMER PART. Spigelia Marylandica. Pink-root, Worm-grass. . . . Vitis vinifera. Common Vine Grape. Ree oe esc ee er Triosteum perfoliatum. Feverwort, Wild NR ae ig a Papaver somniferum. Poppy, White dc: MECR ES Games Giese eae Engenia pimenta. Pimenta, Allspice. . Peete i : : : : 65 Punica granatum. Pomegranate. . . . . Sa eee Aristolochia serpentaria. Virgitia Snakeroot, Birthwort. . . . . 67 Ipomea jalapa. Jalap. . Sea ae se 6B Hydrastis Coen Turmeric-root, Golden Sel. =. sy ea umuluslupulus. Common Hop. . . . . 4, gee ee FO lonymus 2 _ Spindle-tree, Wa-hoo (Ind.). . . ggg ER, OR AUTUMN PART. Hyoscyamus niger. Henbane, Poison ei aga, kegs See Nee oe Hedeoma pulegioides. Pennyroyal, Tick-week, Squawmint, GG. ee eee Aconitum napellus. Wolfsbane, Monkshood, §e. oN eae Helonias dioica. Unicorn, Blazi Star, Aque-roct, Ge. . 6 8F gS Cassia fistula. Cassia, Purging 1a, Pudding-pipe-tree, $e... =. 3. 97 Panax quinquefolium. Ginse : eatin Five Fingers, §c. pars ae Cimicifuga racemosa. Black S; » Black Cohosh, Squaw-root.. . . 79 Chelone glabra. Balmony, Snake-head, Shell-flower, &c. bn ae Oe Hypericum perforatum. “Common St. John’s-wort. °~ eee ee | Guaiacum officinale. Lignum Lge Eesig: ops pant ae cr es cenrnee ee ‘Tanacetum vulgare. none; Comin Tibiy. OS 83 Nicotiana tabacum. Tobacco, Virginia Tobacco. . 3 ; : e ‘ 84 ; =DECEM OR WINTER PART. Rheum palmatum. Rhubarh. er r Se oe ea Thea Chinensis, Soh Tee Tet Plant oe i Frasera Walteri. American Columbo, Indian Lettuce. . ‘ . shee Ceanothus Americanus. New Jersey Tea, wot ee