'$ EORTUS JAMAICAN SIS. sfriMSAaa 



Stem upright, becoming shrubby at bottom, branched, hirsute ; branches somewhat 

 erect, villose; leaves opposite, roundish, sometimes elliptic, crenate, nerved, vil- 

 lose ; petioles long, slender, lax. Peduncles axillary towards tiie ends of the 

 branches, three or live flowered; flowers approximating, blue; calyx ten- sheathed, 

 villose, viscid, teeth awned, upright, villose ; tube of tiie corolla narrower at the base, 

 from tiie middle to the opening spreading out; upper lip composed of the two upper, 

 erect, lateral segments and the helmet, which is smaller than the segments, ovate, 

 arched, bent down, keeled above ; lower lip composed of the two lower segments, 

 which are also bent down ; filaments from the bottom of the tube, standing up above 

 tiie opening of the corolla, pubescent; anthers blackish; germ ovate; style shorter 

 than the stamens-; stigma simple, blunt; seeds two, naked, ovate, black, slightly 

 compressed. There are seldom four seeds. It is an annual plant, and the whole of it 

 has a very strong smell. Smarts. The Portuguese call it ei-vatidrier-a, from its smell- 

 ing somewhat like citron. It grows wild in many parts of Jamaica, especially in the lo-.y 

 gravelly land about Kingston and OKI- Harbour, where it commonly rises two or three 

 feet. It is one of the m )st grateful cephalics and alexipharmics of this class of plants, 

 and may he used with gr< at propriety in most disorders of the nerves and viscera, where 

 such warm medicines are required. Browne. 



In America grows, in gn at plenty, a most excellent spikenard. Its leaf is in shape 

 of the balm, but much bigger, and more like the wild horse-mint, with a large squarp 

 rough stalk, and globulous bead fu all blue flowers. It hath a very strong scent, 



like spikenard ; and if j >u squeeze the tops i 1 your hand, a clam ny or oily subsu 

 will stick to it, and give it a strong scent like the best oil of spike. It is an annual plant, 

 and m its gr( atest perfi ction about Christmas ; in a little lime after, none of it is to be 

 seen. It is one of :he greatest provokers of urine and stone-breakers that ever 1 expe- 

 rienced : I was once sent for to a person that lay i:i a strange condition, like hysteria 

 fits, who, upon nice inquiry, I fdui much troubled with the stone anil grai , 



1 I, near upon the time of voiding them, used to be so until '. la stone or gra- 



vel, and then came out of these fits ; upon which, I I i strong beveraj i iher- 



bet, with lem a . s i jar, and a little spirit of vitriol, ami then added an oily spirit made 

 from this plant, and gave it to her to drink of plentifully like punch, teliie em, that 

 if it fuddled her it was no matter, ii would d > her n > harm, for she had no l\:v<_-,: 

 followed my directions, drank plentifully of it, and fell into a sound sleep; and as so i i 

 as she awaked, made a great quantity of urine, with small stones and gravel ; in a few 



, s, there were brought away as many sm ill i as could be held in the hollow part 



of i hand-; ami she was free from those fits, n >r ever complained of any gravel or 



.stone, as Ion > as she lived after, which was many years. I have often relieve A persons 

 that have had a total stoppage of urine, and have been in such agonies and pen that 

 gre; t -.vats and fainting fits have attended them, and death expected every minute, 

 by their only drinking of the aforesaid conrp siti . which made them evacuate with 

 great violence and in great quantities, bringing away gravel or slime along with their 

 Urine, which would smell very strong of. the oily spirit. It also expels . and 



drives out all malignancies. Planters give it decocted to the negroes, to drive out the 

 gmajl-pox, and to con fort the heart, as they call it. The dried herb, given in powder, 

 expels wind, cures the cholic, and opens obstructions The whole plant makes an ex- 

 cenc.it bath, to take away aches or pains; an 1 heals ulcer.-. 



We have another sort, that is very odoriferous, that grows with a long spike I heal ; 

 J have seen grow to sis Or seven feet high ; but it is not to oily as the other sort. 

 <^$erham, p. 177 



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