VII.D- 



II CRT US JAMAICENSIS. 29. 



9 



.jtiell, like the others of this kind. Thfere is a notion Qf this herb, that if it be put under 

 the stck's pillow, it foretells death if he sleep n it. Boiled in cer^ilim, that is, sesamum 

 an! burnt .vine, an 1 applied to tne pare affected, it cures empyemas and abscesses of the 

 stomach* b; lore they ripen, especially if the juice be drank with honey ; made into a 

 ,.:. bister with horehound, it cures the cramp or spasm ; with honey, eaten fasting, it 

 cures the dropsy. The root, boiled in the above-said oil, takes out freckles or spots ; 

 boiled with eacpa-nitf milk, it cures ulcers, and so doth the bark powdered and sprinkled 

 upon thc:n ; it eases after pains." 





WILD-WORMWOOD or BASTARD FEVERFEW. PARTHENIUM. 



Cl. 21, o*. .5 Moncccia pentandria. Nat. or. Nucatnentaeea. 

 Gen. char. Common calyx a five-leaved simple perianth, spreading ; Compound co- 

 rolla convex ; hermaphrodite corollets mam in the disk -females five in the ray, scarce- 

 ly surpassing ttifc others : Propel" corolla of the hermaphrodites one petaled, tubular, 

 evect/snlbotb, five-cleft ; felmaies one-petaled, tubula-, ligulate, oblique, blunt, 

 roundish : gtamensin til :h rmaphrodites live capillary filaments, anthers thickish ; 

 the pistil has a ger,rn scar ryable, a filiform style, and two filiform stigmas ; 



there is no pericarp, cal.x unchanged : seeds in the herm iphrodites abortive ; in the 

 females solitary, turbinate-cordate, compressed naked ; receptacle scarcely any, flat 

 ctiaffs seperate the florets, so that each female has two hermaphrodites behind. 



HYSTEROPKORCJS. CUT-LEAVED, 



Siib-hirsuiuin ramosum, foliis multipUciler incisis, floribus tennina- 

 libus. Browne, p. 340. 

 Leaves compound- 11111 llifid. 



This well known plant grows wild in almost every open field in Jamaica. Barham calls 

 it Milkwort, and says " There is an herb in Jamaica called mug-wort, that grows in all 

 or most of the poor grounds in America ; nay, after a piece of ground is thrown up, 

 bein worn out bv planting, commonly the first weed that appears is this. It is full of 

 branches, which "are covered with small white flowers ; its leaves are very much jagged 

 or ranged like rag-weed'. In Jamaica it is called wild wormwood ; the Spaniards call it 

 corbo sang& I saw, in the year 1723, a very great cure performed upon -a jew, who, 

 after a fever an i ague, hail a violent inflammation and breaking out with sores on both 

 his legs, which could not be cured by rttrysic', nor any ointment in the apothecaries 

 shops ; at last he was advised to corbo $anta, to make a bath of it, which he did, bathing 

 twee'a-day ', and in three or four days he was perfectly well, all his sores healed up, 

 and the inflammation gone, with the great pain that attended it. This I was an eye- 

 witness to." 1-iarlutm, p. tQ6. 



A case of the good effects of worm woo 1 is related in the Columbian Magazine, for 

 1798, page 52S. The trial of the bath was recommended to a mr. W- ms, who had 

 Ion"- lingered under 'excruciating torments of a virulent breaking out over the loins and 

 posteriors, which had baffled all the medicines of the shops. He was treated with the 

 mu<Twort bath agreeable to dr. Barnaul's directions, and, ort the third day's bathing, the 

 ciost flattering symptoms took place, and in the course of a week or ten days, a perfect 

 cure was effected. The scars however remained as a lasting proof of the virulence of 

 die disorder, and the efficacy of the remedy. 



P p 2 Another 



