WOhjn HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. 305 



filaments connate in a cylinder ; interior toothless, equal, having a very few capitate 

 hairs at top, in other parts smooth ; outer smooth ; anthers oblong, incumbent, yellow; 

 g Tin oblong, hirsute, pale green ; styles almost equal, hirsute with simple hairs; capsule co- 

 lumnar, sharpish, hirsute, five-cornered. Swartz observes that it varies with a stiller and 

 v, eaker stem, upright or declining. It is very common in every partof Jamaica, and from the 

 form and manner of growth of its leaves is frequently called Three Hearts shrub. Tin 

 \ tole plant has an agreeable acid taste ; Sloane says the juice takes out spots in linen. 

 Bruised and mixed with a little fine salt, and the juice squeezed through a fine rag, it 

 will take oft' films, funguses, or proud flesh, from the eye, if two or three drops ait: 

 dropped in twice a-day, which assists in clearing the sight. Browne says it is a plea- 

 sant cooler and diuretic (in decoction or as a salad) formerly administered in inflamma- 

 tory cases ; and which may be ordered in cooling and other diluting infusions. 



WORM -GRASS. SP1GELIA. 



Cl. 5, OR. 1. Pcntandria monogynia. Nat. on. Stellate?. 



This was so named in honour of Adrian Spigelius, professor of anatomy and surgery 

 at l'adua. 



Gen. char. Calyx a one-leafed perianth, five-parted, acuminate, small, permanent ; 

 corolla one-petaled, funnel-shaped ; tube much longer than tiie calyx, narrowed 

 below ; border spreading, five-cleft ; segments wide, acuminate; stamens five sim- 

 ple filaments, with simple anthers ; the pistil has a germ composed of two globes, 

 superior ; style awl-shaped, length of the tube ; stigma simple ; the pericarp a 

 twin capsule, two-celled, four-valved ; seeds numerous, very small There arc 

 only two species, one of which is cultivated in Jamaica, and is thought to have been 

 originally imported from tiie Spanish main. 



ANTHELMIA. 



Quadriphylla, spicis tevninalibus et c cetitro/rondis. Browne, p. 156, 

 t. 37, f. 3. 



Stem herbaceous, uppermost leaves in fours. 



This is an annual plant with a fibrous root, from which arises a strong, erect, her- 

 baceous, hollow stalk, a foot and a half high, channelled, sending out two side branches 

 opposite near the bottom, and a little above the middle four acute-pointed leaves, 

 placed in form of a cross ; these and also the principal stalk, have four smaller leaves 

 near the top, placed round in the same manner as the others ; and from these arise short 

 spikes of herbaceous flowers, tanged on one side of the footstalks, which are succeeded 

 by roundish twin capsules, containing small seeds. Martyifs Diclkniary. 



This vegetable has been long in use among the negroes and Indians, who were the 

 first acquainted vvirh its virtues ; and takes its present denomination from its peculiar 

 efficacy ; which, I dare affirm, from a great number of successfal experiments, it does 

 in so extraordinary a manner, that no other simple can be of equal efficacy in any other 

 disease as this is in those that proceed from these insects, especially when attended 

 with a fever or convulsions. The method of preparing this medicine is as follows : viz. 

 you take the plant roots and all, either fresh gathered or dry, two moderate handfulls, 

 and boil them over a gentle fire in two quarts of water, until one half of the liquid i.s 

 Vol. II. Q q consumed.; 



