f 
RUTACEÆ. 
was much used by the ancients, who ascribed to it many excel- 
lent qualities. Hippocrates commends it as a resolvent and 
diuretic, and attributes to it the power of resisting contagion, 
and the action of other kinds of poisons; so that it was em- 
ployed with this intention by Mithridates (see Pl. nat. hist. 1. 
28. c. 8.): this quality, though allowed by Boerhaave, is now 
generally discredited (Cullen. mat. med. 2. p. 365.), According 
to Bergius it is “ alexiteria, pellens, emmenagoga, sudorifera, 
rubefaciens.” It is, however, acknowledged to be a powerful 
astringent, and like other medicines of a fcetid kind, to possess 
attenuating, deobstruent, and anti-spasmodic powers, and to be. 
peculiarly adapted to phlegmatic habits, or weak and hysterical 
constitutions, suffering from retarded or obstructed secretions. 
It is employed by some as a tea, and also externally in discutient 
and antiseptic fomentations. Among the common people the 
leaves are sometimes taken with treacle, on an empty stomach, 
as anthelmintic. A conserve, made by beating the fresh leaves 
with thrice their weight of fine sugar, is the most commodious 
form for using the herb in substance. The dose of the pow- 
dered leaves may be 15 to 20 grs. given twice or thrice a day. 
The officinal preparations “ oleum rut@ and extractum rut@ gra- 
veolens,” or oil of rue, is procured in the quantity of 59 grains 
of oil from 21 pounds ofrue, which oil has the strong ungrateful 
odour and taste of the plant. When recently drawn, the colour 
is yellow, but by age it deepens to a brown, and deposits a 
brownish resinous sediment. It congeals at 40° Fahrenheit. 
This oil is stimulant, and antispasmodic ; it is sometimes given 
in hysteria, and the convulsive affections of infants attendant on 
dentition, and is sometimes used as a rubefacient in palsy. The 
extract of rue is prepared like other simple extracts: it is ino- 
dorous, but has a bitter acrid taste. The medicinal properties 
are different from those of the plant, the stimulant and narcotic 
powers of which depend on the volatile oil it contains, which is 
dissipated during the instipation of the extract. The dose is 
from 10 to 15 grs. in pills. Lewis, Woodville, and Thomson. 
“ Rue was anciently also named herb grace or herb of grace, 
and it is to this day called ave-grace in Sussex, in allusion doubt- 
less to Ave-Maria, gratid plena; and it is remarkable that 
Mary, in Hebrew, signifies bitter. Warburton says that rue 
had its name herb of grace from its having been used in exor- 
cisms. When Ophelia, in Shakspeare’s Hamlet, says to the 
Queen “ There’s rue for you and here’s some for me; we may 
call it herb of grace o’ Sundays :” the fair moralist has no refer- 
ence to this plant being used in exorcisms, performed in churches 
on Sundays ; but means only, that the Queen may with peculiar 
Propriety on Sundays, when she solicits pardon for that crime 
Which she has so much occasion to rue and repent of, call her 
tue herb of grace. It was, indeed, the common name for rue 
m Shakspeare’s time ; and Greene, in his Quip for an upstart 
Courtier, has this passage: ‘ some of them smiled and said rue 
was called herbegrace, which though they scorned in their youth, 
they might wear in their age, and that it was never too late to 
Say miserere.” The gardener in Richard II, says of the Queen: 
“ Here did she drop a tear ; here in this place, 
I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace: 
Rue even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen 
In the remembrance of a weeping queen. 
Here the gardener plays upon the name, and might mislead an 
etymologist who knew no better. He might, with more truth, 
have called rue bitter than sour, and he whimsically enough 
-makes it take the place of rosemary, which was the emblem of 
remembrance, as rue was of grace. Thus Perdita, in the Win- 
ter’s Tale : 
“ Reverend sirs, 
For you there’s rosemary and rue, these keep 
II. Ruta. 
Seeming and favour all the winter long: 
é ” 
Grace and remembrance be to you both. 
They are both evergreens, retaining their appearance and taste 
during the whole year, and therefore are proper emblems of re- 
membrance and grace. 
Rue seems to have been used formerly in nosegays ; for the 
Clown in All’s Well that End’s Well, having said of the Countess, 
“ she was the sweet-marjoram of the salad, or rather the herb 
of grace.” Lafeu replies, ‘ they are not salad-herbs, you 
knave, they are nose-herbs ;” upon which the Clown, in cha- 
racter, remarks, ‘‘ Į am no great Nebuchadnezzar, sir, I have 
not much skill in grass :” thus punning upon the name of grace, 
as the gardener did upon the other name of rue. (Martyn). 
Linneus having observed that the rue moved one of its sta- 
mens every day to the pistil, Sir James Smith examined the 
Ruta angustifolia, and found many of the stamens in the posi- 
tion which he describes, holding their anthers over the stigma ; 
while those which had not come to the stigma were lying back 
upon the petals, as well as those which had already performed 
their office, had returned to their original situation. Trying 
with a quill to stimulate the stamens, he found them all quite 
devoid of irritability ; they are strong, stout, conical bodies, and 
cannot, without breaking, be forced out of the position in which 
they happen to be. ‘The same phenomenon has been observed 
in several other flowers, but it is no where more striking, or 
more easily examined than in the species of rue. Hence Sir 
James Smith concludes, that these plants are endued with a kind 
of spontaneous motion. This is not a very philosophical con- 
clusion. To a similar cause we are taught to assign the same 
cause ; and because we cannot excite the irritability, it does not 
therefore follow that the subject is not irritable. 
Strong-scented or Common Rue. FI. June, Sept. Clt. 1562. 
Shrub 3 feet. 
7 R. pivarica`ra (Tenor. cat. hort. neap. 1819. p. 42. but 
not of Saltzm.) leaves supra-decompound ; leaflets obovately 
cuneated, equal; petals entire or a little toothed. k. H. Na- 
tive of the south of Italy, also of Greece and Tauria, among 
rocks exposed to the sun. Tenor. fl. nap. 1. t. 36. An inter- 
mediate plant between R. gravéolens and R. angustif olia.— 
Lam. ill. t. 345. f. 1. 
Divaricate Rue. Fl. May, Sept. Clt. 1820. Shrub 3 feet. 
8 R. crirumirouia (Moric. ined. D. C. prod. 1. p. 710.) 
leaves supra-decompound ; leaflets oblong-linear, rather cu- 
neated, about equal; petals entire or a little toothed. k. H. 
Native of Germany between Duino and Trieste, as well as of 
the Levant, on rocks. 
Samphire-leaved Rue. Shrub 2 feet. 
9 R. Corsica (D. C. prod. 1. p. 710.) leaves supra-decom- 
pound ; leaflets obovate, almost equal ; racemes almost simple ; 
pedicels elongated, 1-flowered, stiffly divaricating ; petals entire, 
h. F. Native of Corsica, on the mountains. R. montana, spi- 
nosa álba, Bocce. mus. p. 70. t. 59. R. divaricata, Saltzm. in 
flora. 1821. p. 109. Corymbs bifid from the base ; branches 
The old branches, if Bocconi’s figure is to be de- 
are spiny. Flowers yellow, but according to Bocce. 
they are white. Perhaps two distinct plants are here confused. 
Corsican Rue. FÌ. June, Sept. Clt. 1818. Shrub 2 feet. 
10 R. arsirròra (Hook. exot. fl. 79.) leaves supra-decom- 
pound; leaflets obovate, glaucous, pubescent, somewhat auricled, 
terminal one large, obcordate; branches of panicle bracteate ; 
petals entire, shorter than the stamens ; ovary on a pedicel, 
h. G. Native of Nipaul. R. Dampatis, Hamilt. mss. Flowers 
white. An elegant plant, clothed with glandular pubescence. 
White-flowered Rue. Fl. July, Sept. Clt. 1823. Sh. 2 ft. 
Cult. All the species of rue are of easy cultivation. They 
5 a2 
racemose. 
pended upon, 
