SPIGELIA MARILANDICA. 
are in a solitary spike, with small opposite bracts. The calyx 
consists of five awl-shaped persistent leaflets. The corolla is 
of a bright-red color on the outside, and deep-orange within, 
pentangular above, gibbous at the throat, and widening at 
the base, with the border five-parted. The segments are 
lanceolate and revolute. The stamens are five, shorter than 
the corolla, supporting sagittate, converging anthers. The 
germen is superior, with a round style, jointed below, with 
the upper part deciduous. The seeds are angular and 
rugged. ; 
The properties of this plant were learned from the Cherokee 
and Creek Indians, who became acquainted with them under 
the name of Unsteetla, according to Dr. Garden, about 1723, 
and they were made known to the profession about 1740. 
These Indians collected the plant and disposed of it to the 
white traders. They packed it in casks, or more commonly 
in large bales weighing from 300 to 350 pounds. ‘That con- 
tained in casks is to be preferred, as less liable to become 
damp and mouldy. In consequence of the imperfect manner 
in which the plant is dried, it seldom happens that packages 
reach the market free from dirt and mouldiness, and having 
the stalks of a bright color. 
CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. 
Pinx-roor is a powerful and certain anthelmintic. The 
whole plant is possessed of this property, but the root, being 
the most active, is generally employed, and this is most strik- 
ing when in a fresh state, as there is no article that deterio- 
rates more by exposure and keeping. The odor is very feeble, 
and the taste sweetish-bitter and unpleasant. It has been 
frequently analyzed by several eminent chemists and prac- 
titioners, who have found it to contain an oil, acrid resin, a 
bitter extractive (on which the vermifuge power is supposed 
to depend), tannin, gallic acid, some salts, &c. tapes 
In conjunction with its anthelmintic qualities, however, the 
plant also sometimes displays those of a purgative, and all its 
virtues have been attributed by some writers to this action; 
but this is erroneous, as it manifests its peculiar power on the — 
worms, without exciting an increased action of the intestines, 
and hence the usual practice of prescribing a purge after the 
exhibition of Spicenia. It is more probable that the vermi- 
fuge qualities of the plant depend on the same principle that 
induces the narcotic agmpioms. to v it occasionally 
le that 
