PARTRIDGE BERRY. B1 
colour and perfectly transparent. It is one of the 
heaviest of the volatile oils, and sinks rapidly in 
water if a sufficient quantity be added to overcome 
the repulsion of two heterogeneous fluids. Its 
taste is aromatic, sweet and highly pungent. 
The oil appears to contain the chief medicinal 
virtue of the plant, since I know of no case in 
which the leaves, deprived of their aroma, have 
been employed for any purpose. ‘They are nev- 
ertheless considerably astringent, and exhibit the 
usual evidences of this property when combined 
with preparations of iron. 
The berries, or berry-like calyces, have a pulpy 
but rather dry consistence, and a strong flavour 
of the plant. They are esteemed by some persons, 
but are hardly palatable enough to be considered 
esculent. In the colder seasons they afford food 
to the partridges and some other wild animals. 
The leaves, the essence and the oil of this 
plant are kept for use in the apothecaries’ shops. 
An infusion of the leaves has been used to com- 
municate an agreeable flayour to tea, also as a 
substitute for that article by people in the country. 
Some physicians have prescribed it medicinally as 
an emmenagogue, with success in cases attended 
with debility. The oil, though somewhat less pun- 
gent than those of peppermint and origanum, is” 
