4162 Heuchera Americana, 
into the tube of the calix. Filaments more than twice the length of 
the calix, delicate, yellow, and inserted into the calix. Anthers small, 
red, globose, two-celled. Germ bifurcated at the summit, and end- 
ing in two diverging slender styles. Capsule consists of two long 
beaks, containing a great number of very small blackish or deep 
brown seeds. 
The whole plant is every where covered with a soft pubescence, 
which on the branches of the panicles and upper parts of the scapes, 
is viscid or clammy; and the margins of the leaves are finely 
fringed. The viscid pubescence caused Pursh to alter the specific 
name here used, to that of viscida. The plant inhabits shady woods, 
thickets, among rocks, and stony places in fields, near water, seem- 
ing always to prefer a moist soil, and one tolerably rich. It is in full 
flower in May, June, and at this season may be found in every state 
of the union, Pursh says, it varies with nearly smooth leaves, 
MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. 
The Alum-root, as its name implies, is an astringent; and for this 
property, which it possesses in an eminent degree, the plant is here 
figured and described. Little seems to be known, as yet, of its pro- 
perties, further than this. And it is not used, so far as I know, in 
Pennsylvania, Jersey or Maryland, as a medicine. It is said by Pro- | 
fessor Barton, to be one of the articles of the Materia Medica of the 
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