The Botanist's Companion Part 17

297. AMMI majus. BISHOPS-WEED. The Seeds.--The seeds of common bishops-weed are large and pale-coloured: their smell and taste are weak, and without any thing of the origanum flavour of the true ammi, which does not grow in this country. They are ranked among the four lesser hot seeds, but are scarcely otherwise made use of than as an ingredient in the theriaca.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

298. AMYGDALUS Persica. ALMONDS. Flowers.--They have a cathartic effect, and especially to children have been successfully given in the character of a vermifuge for this purpose; an infusion of a dram of the flowers dried, or half an ounce in their recent state, is the requisite dose.

The expressed oil of almonds has been for a long time, and is at present, in use for many purposes in medicine. The concentrated acid of the bitter almond is a most dangerous poison to man and all other animals.

299. ANAGALLIS arvensis. PIMPERNEL. The Leaves.--Many extraordinary virtues have been attributed to them. Geoffroy esteems them cephalic, sudorific, vulnerary, anti-maniacal, anti-epileptic, and alexiteral.

300. ANCHUSA angustifolia. BUGLOSS. The Roots, Leaves, and Flowers.-- Bugloss has a slimy sweetish taste, accompanied with a kind of coolness: the roots are the most glutinous, and the flowers the least so. These qualities point out its use in hot bilious or inflammatory distempers, and a thin acrimonious state of the fluids. The flowers are one of the four called cordial flowers: the only quality they have that can ent.i.tle them to this appellation, is, that they moderately cool and soften, without offending the palate or stomach; and thus in warm climates, or in hot diseases, may in some measure refresh the patient.

301. ANEMONE Hepatica. HEPATICA. The Leaves.--It is a cooling gently restringent herb; and hence recommended in a lax state of the fibres as a corroborant.

302. ANTIRRHINIUM Elatine. FLUELLIN. The Root, Bark, and Leaves.--They were formerly accounted excellent vulneraries, and of great use for cleansing and healing old ulcers and cancerous sores: some have recommended them internally in leprous and scrophulous disorders; as also in hydropic cases.

303. ANTIRRHINIUM Linaria. TOAD FLAX. The Flowers.--An infusion of them is said to be very efficacious in cutaneous disorders; and Hammerin gives an instance in which these flowers, with those of verbasc.u.m, used as tea, cured an exanthematous disorder, which had resisted various other remedies tried during the course of three years.--Woodville's Med.

Bot. p. 372.

304. AQUILEGIA vulgaris. COLUMBINE. The Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds.--It has been looked upon as aperient; and was formerly in great esteem among the common people for throwing out the small-pox and measles. A distilled water, medicated vinegar, and conserve, were prepared from the flowers; but they have long given place to medicines of greater efficacy.

305. ARISTOLOCHIA longa. LONG BIRTHWORT. The Roots.--This is a tuberous root, sometimes about the size of the finger, sometimes as thick as a man's arm: great virtues used to be ascribed to this plant as a specific in most uterine obstructions and gout: the outside is of a brownish colour; the inside yellowish.

306. ARTEMISIA vulgaris. MUGWORT. The leaves.--These have a light aromatic smell, and an herbaceous bitterish taste. They are princ.i.p.ally celebrated as uterine and anti-hysteric: an infusion of them is sometimes drunk, either alone or in conjunction with other substances, in suppressions of immoderate fluxes. This medicine is certainly a very mild one, and considerably less hot than most others to which these virtues are attributed.

307. ASCLEPIAS Vincetoxium. SWALLOW WORT. The Root.--This root is esteemed sudorific, diuretic, and emmenagogue, and frequently employed by the French and German physicians as an alexipharmic, sometimes as a succedaneum to contrayerva; whence it has received the name of Contrayerva Germanorum. Among us it is rarely made use of.

308. ASPERULA odorata. SWEET WOODROOF. The Flowers.--It has an exceedingly pleasant smell, which is improved by moderate exsiccation; the taste is sub-saline, and somewhat austere. It imparts its flavour to vinous liquors. Asperula is supposed to attenuate viscid humours, and strengthen the tone of the bowels: it was recommended in obstructions of the liver and biliary ducts, and by some in epilepsies and palsies: modern practice has nevertheless rejected it.

309. ASPLENIUM Ceterach. SPLEENWORT.--It is recommended as a pectoral, and for promoting urine in nephritic cases. The virtue which it has been most celebrated for, is that which it has the least t.i.tle to, i. e.

diminish the spleen.

310. ASPLENIUM Scolophendrium. HARTS-TONGUE. The Leaves.--These have a roughish, somewhat mucilaginous taste. They are recommended in obstructions of the viscera, and for strengthening their tone; and have sometimes been made use of for these intentions, either alone, or in conjunction with maiden-hair, or the other plants of similar properties.

311. ATROPA Mandragora. MANDRAKE. The Leaves.--The qualities of this plant are very doubtful: it has a strong disagreeable smell resembling that of the narcotic herbs, to which cla.s.s it is usually referred. It has rarely been any otherwise made use of in medicine, than as an ingredient in one of the old officinal unguents. Both that composition and the plant itself are rejected from our Pharmacopoeias.

312. BALLOTA nigra. BASE h.o.r.eHOUND. The Leaves.--These are doubtless an useful aperient and deobstruent; promote the fluid secretions in general, and liberally taken loosen the belly. They are an ingredient only in the theriaca.

313. BELLIS perennis. DAISIES. The Leaves.--They have a subtile subacrid taste, and are recommended as vulneraries, and in asthmas and hectic fevers, and such disorders as are occasioned by drinking cold liquors when the body has been much heated.

214. BERBERIS vulgaris. BERBERRY. The Bark and Fruit.--The outward bark of the branches and the leaves have an astringent acid taste; the inner yellow bark, a bitter one: this last is said to be serviceable in the jaundice; and by some, to be an useful purgative.

The berries, which to the taste are gratefully acid, and moderately restringent, have been given with good success in bilious fluxes, and diseases proceeding from heat, acrimony, or thinness of the juices.

315. BETONICA officinalis. WOOD BETONY. The Leaves.--These and the flowers have an herbaceous, roughish, somewhat bitterish taste, accompanied with a very weak aromatic flavour. This herb has long been a favourite among writers on the Materia Medica, who have not been wanting to attribute to it abundance of good qualities. Experience does not discover any other virtue in betony than that of a mild corroborant: as such, an infusion or light decoction of it may be drunk as tea, or a saturated tincture in rectified spirit given in suitable doses, in laxity and debility of the viscera, and disorders proceeding from thence.

316. BETULA alba. BIRCH TREE. The bark and Sap.--Upon deeply wounding or boring the trunk of the tree in the beginning of spring, a sweetish juice issues forth, sometimes, as is said, in so large quant.i.ty, as to equal in weigth to the whole tree and root: one branch will bleed a gallon or more a day. This juice is chiefly recommended in s...o...b..tic disorders, and other foulnesses of the blood: its most sensible effect is to promote the urinary discharge.

317. BORAGO officinalis. BORAGE. The Flowers.--An exhilarating virtue has been attributed to the flowers of borage, which are hence ranked among the so called cordial flowers: but they appear to have very little claim to any virtue of this kind, and seem to be altogether insignificant.

318. BRYONIA alba. WHITE BRYONY. The Roots.--This is a strong irritating cathartic; and as such has sometimes been successfully exhibited in maniacal cases, in some kinds of dropsies, and in several chronical disorders, where a quick solution of viscid juices, and a sudden stimulus on the solids, were required.

319. CALENDULA officinalis. MARIGOLD. The Flowers.--These are supposed to be aperient and attenuating; as also cardiac, alexipharmic, and sudorific: they are princ.i.p.ally celebrated in uterine obstructions, the jaundice, and for throwing out the small-pox. Their sensible qualities give little foundation for these virtues: they have scarcely any taste, and no considerable smell. The leaves of the plant discover a viscid sweetishness, accompanied with a more durable saponaceous pungency and warmth: these seem capable of answering some useful purposes, as a stimulating, aperient, antis...o...b..tic medicine.

320. CANNABIS sativa. HEMP. The Seeds.--These have some smell of the herb; their taste is unctuous and sweetish; on expression they yield a considerable quant.i.ty of insipid oil: hence they are recommended (boiled in milk, or triturated with water into an emulsion) against coughs, heat of urine, and the like. They are also said to be useful in incontinence of urine; but experience does not warrant their having any virtues of this kind.