28o 



F > 



V 



This Lily, which now very commonly decorates the borders f 



our gardens with the beautiful whitenefs "■ -^ - "^ - ^^ 



^ 



of its 



owers, IS a native 



of the Levant, and has been cultivated here fmce the time of Ger / 

 The flowers of this plant have a pleafant fweet fmell, and were fn * 

 merly ufed for medicinal purpofes -^ a watery diftillation of them 



Was 



water ; 



and though both menflrua become 



5 



as 



employed as a cofmetic, and the oleum liliorum was fuppofed t 

 pollefs anodyne and nervine powers ; but the odorous matter of thefe 

 flowers is of a very volatile kind, being totally diffipated in dryin 

 and entirely carried off in evaporation by redified fpirit as well 



impregnated with their 

 agreeable odour by infufion or diflillation, yet no effential oil could 

 be obtained from feveral pounds of the flowers. It is therefore the 

 roots only which are now directed by the Edinburgh College: they are 

 extremely mucilaginous, and are 'chiefly ufed, boiled with milk or 

 water, in emollient and fuppiu'ating cataplafms : it is probable 

 however, that the poultices formed of bread or farina, poflefs everj 

 advantage of thofe prepared of Lily root. 



Lilium ^ Xsii>iov vcl >^ifjoy. By the Greeks it is called ycomv^ 

 * Alluding to this, Ovid, in the luxurlancy of his imaginatiorij afcribes its origin to. 



the milk of Junoi 



Pi 



u 



Dum puer Alcldes Dlvae vagus ub 

 Junonis, dulci prella fapore fuit; 



In terras fufum Lilia oulchra d 



Oly 



■t 



Pliny fays, Lilium Rofa nobilitate proximum efti and both thefe flowers have furnifliel 

 their Ihare of metaphor to ancient and modern poets- 



Either fmgly 



ub 



Alb 



I'g 



/ 



^N.- lib. xii. 68 



r 



Particularly as an anticpileptic and anod) 



ER YNGIUM M ARITIM UM. 



