Unies 
behind a fpur-like procefs or nectarium. Filaments five, very thort. 
Antherez fealy, lax, united, two-celled, terminated by an orange- 
coloured membrane. Germen conical. Style twifted at the bafe. 
Stigma round, obliquely perforated, permanent. Capfule one-celled, 
three valved, containing numerous, oval fhining feeds. 
It grows in corn fields, wafte and cultivated grounds, flowering all — 
the fummer months. _ | ' 
This plant varies much by cultivation, and by the vivid colouring 
Of its flowers often becomes extremely beautiful in gardens, where it 
is diftinguifhed by various names, _ PS 7 
To the tafte this plant, in its recent flate, is extremely glutinous, 
or mucilaginous, accompanied with the common herbaceous flavour 
and roughnefs. By diftillation with water, according to Haafe,* it 
affords a {mall quantity of odorous effential oil, of a fomewhat-acrid 
tafte. The dried herb.yields about half its weight of watery extract, 
the frefh plant about one eighth. 
Though many of the old writers on the Materia Medica reprefent 
this plant as a powerful medicine in epilepfy, afthma, ulcers, {cabies, 
~and cutaneous complaints, yet the viola tricolor owes its prefent cha- 
racter as a medicine to the modern authorities of Starck,” Metzger, 
Haafe,* and. others,’ efpecially as a remedy for the crufta lactea. For 
this purpofe, a handful of the freth herb, or half a dram ofit dried, and 
boiled two hours in milk, is to be ftrained and taken night and morn- 
ing, Bread, with this decoction, is alfo to be formed into a poultice, 
and applied to the part. By this treatment it has been obferved, that 
the eruption during the firlt eight days increafes, and that the urine, 
when the medicine fucceeds, has an odour fimilar to that of cats ; 
but on continuing the ufe of the plant a fufficient time, this {mell 
goes off, the fcabs difappear, and the fkin recovers its natural purity. 
: 2 De viola tricolare. Erlang. 1782. 
> De crufta ladtea infantum ejufdemque remedio differtatio, quam Acad. feient. Lugd. 
Gall. er se. fp ad Moen. 1779. See alfo London Medical 
Sournal. vol, it. : Poe Med. Schriften. vol. 2. tL, t 
: one’s publication on this fubject we have not feen. In Sweden many tefti- 
peg aye effeds of this ate have been publifhed. See Murray. 1. c. 
~ monies of the good 
. No. 9.—Part Hl. 2D Inftances 
~ 
