2 



57 



/ 



ing, united at^ the bottom into one body, and furniilied with fimple 

 antherse, but in the lateral flowers the filaments are fcarcely percep- 

 tible, and the antherce are fixed to the fcale of the calyx ; the calyx of 

 xhtfemakfGivers is compofed of three fmall permanent fcaly fegments, 

 growing to the germen : the petals are three, ftiff, fharp, permanent : 

 the germen fupports three ftyles, fiipplied with fimple liigmata : the 

 fruit is a roundiih flefhy berry, marked with tubercles, which are the 

 vefliges of the petals and calyx ; when ripe the berry is of a blacldfh 

 purple colour, and contains three fmall hard irregular fl-iaped feeds. 

 It flowers in May and June. 



Savin is a native of the South of Europe and the Levant : it has 

 been long cultivated in our gardens," and from producing male and 



female fiov/ers on feparate plants it was formerly diftinguiflied into 



the barren and berry bearing Savin : the latter of thefe our 



reprefents. " The leaves and tops of Savin have a moderately 

 ftrons; fmell of the difap:reeable kincl, and a hot, bitteriih, acrid tafl:e : 



they give out great part of their adive matter to watery liquors, and 



the whole to redihed fpirit. Diftilled with w^ater they yield a larg 

 quantity of efl^ential oil." Decodions of the leaves, freed from the 

 yolatile principle by infpiifation to the confiftence of an extrad, retain 



fiderable fliare of their pungency and warmth along with their 



bitternefs, and have fome degree of fmell, but not refembling that of 

 the plant itfelf. On infpifl^ating the fpirituous tindure, there remains 

 an extrad, confifting of two diftind fubflances, of which one is 

 yellow, unduous or oily, bitteriih, and very pungent ; the other black 



pungent, and fubaft 



>> 



^ 



Savin is a powerful and adive medicine, and has been long reputed 

 the mofl: efficacious in the Materia Medica, for producing a determi- 

 nation to the uterus, and thereby proving emmenagogue \^ it heats, 

 and fl;imulates the whole fyftem very confiderably, and is faid to pro- 

 mote the fluid fecrctions. 



» Cultivated in 1562. Turn. herb, part 2. fol. 124. Alton's Hort. Kczo\. 

 ^ For the male inflorefcence of this genus^ fee the next plate, viz. n. 95. 



* From thirty-two ounces Floffman obtained five ounces of this effential oil, in which 



the whole virtue of the plant feems to refide. 



Berg^us ftates its virtus to be emmenagogaj abortiens, diuretica, fanguinem movens. 



Mat. Med. p. 814. li Lewis Mat. Med 



"^ 



The 



