FAMILY HERBAL. St 



T 



to be exactly alike and it is therefore more pro- 

 bable, that this is not another plant;, but the same 

 in a different sta-ge of growth. 



We use the roots ; our druggists keep them, and 

 they are the principal ingredient in that famous 

 powder^ called^ from its being rolled up into balls, 

 lapis contraverva. It is an excelient cordial and 

 sudorific^ good in fevers, and in nervous cases ; 

 and against indigestions, colics, and weaknesses 

 of the stomach. It may^be taken in powder or 

 in tincture; hut it in better to give it alone, than 

 with that mixture of crab's claws and other use- 

 less ingredients, which go into the contrayerva 

 stone. In fevers and nervous disordersj it is best 

 to give it in powder ; in weaknesses of the stomach;, 

 it is best in tincture. It is also an excellent in- 

 gredient in bitter tinctures ; and it is wonderful the 

 present practice has not put it to that use. All 

 the old prescribers of forms for these things^ havs 

 put some warm root into them ; but none is so 

 proper as this ; the most usual lias been the galan- 

 gul, but that has a most disagreeable flavour iii 

 tincture: the contraverva has all the virtues ex- 

 pected to be foimd in that^ aad is quite unexcep- 

 tionable. 



The Copal Tree. Arlor copalifera. 



A LARGE tree of South America. It grows 

 to a great height, and is tall, straight, and tolerably 

 regular ; the bark of the trunk is of a deep brown. 

 The branches are bitter. The leaves are large and 

 oblong, and they are blunt at the ends ; they are 

 deeply cut in at the edges, and if it were not that 

 thf y are a great deal longer in proportion to their 

 breadth, they would be yery like those of the oak ; 



the flowers are moderately largc» and full of 



