“{ @ } 
ROOT perennial, cylindrical, long, flender, ‘creeping, fibrous, 
Stalks fimple, flender, ftriated, two feet in height, round, fmooth, in 
_ afomewhat zigzag direCtion. Leaves on footftalks, alternate, {mooth, 
heart-fhaped, blunt, of a fhining bright green on the upper fide, be- 
neath veined. Flowers numerous, at the axille of the leaves, of a 
greenifh yellow. Calyx none. Corolla monopetalous, tubular, tube 
nearly cylindrical, at the bafe round, at the mouth wider, and extended 
downwards into along tongue. Filaments none. Antherz fix, growing 
underneath the fligma. Germen oblong, angular, placed below the — 
corolla. Style very fhort. Stigma roundifh, divided into fix pore 
tions, Capfule hexagonal, fix-celled. Seeds numerous, fimall, flattifh. — 
It is a native of this country, growing in woods and hedges, and 
producing its lowers from July till September. 
Various {pecies of Ariftolochia were formerly included in the Materia 
Medica, as noticed in the firft part of this work; but the Clematitis 
here figured is the only fpecies ftill retained in the Edinburgh Phar- 
macopeeia, and therefore ought to have fuperfeded the A. longa, of 
which a plate is given at page 294. 3 
The root, which is the part medicinally ufed, has a fomewhat 
aromatic fmell, and a warm bitterith tafte. 3 
Nof only writers on the Materia Medica, but moft authors on the 
practice of medicine, from the remoteft times, have afcribed many 
virtues to the roots of Ariftolochia, which it would be ufelefs here to 
enumerate. The qualities for which they have been chiefly efteemed 
are fufficiently noticed in the following extra&t from Dr. Cullen:— 
“ Which of the {pecies of Ariftolochia are to be preferred I cannot 
‘“« determine, and believe the difference between the rotunda, longa, 
“ and tenuis, is not confiderable, though the latter feems now to be 
‘* preferred by both the Colleges of London and Edinburgh. ‘They 
** are all of them confiderably bitter, with more acrimony than in 
any other of the bitters commonly employed. Its name feems to 
have arifen from the fuppofition of its emmenagogue virtues, and 
in fome cafes of retention and chlorofis, as a warm and ftimulating 
“© medicine, I have found it ufeful; but in cafes of fuppreffion I 
* never found it of any ufe: and the commendation of it by the 
** ancients in promoting the lochia, facilitating birth, &c. is very ill 
7 “ founded. 
ce 
“ 
“6 
