FRASERA CAROLINENSIS. 
venia and New York.” Mr. Nutall says, “in the dry and open 
woods of Pennsylvania and New York, in certain localities, it is 
abundant.” Dr. Wm. Short says, “it grows in the barrens or 
prairies of Kentucky.” The late Dr. Barton observed it growing 
in great abundance on the west side of the Genesee river in the 
State of New York. It is said to be common in some parts of Upper 
Canada, but the States of Kentucky and Tennessee yield it in 
profusion. From the abundance which grows in the neighbor- 
hood of Marietta, in Ohio, it is sometimes called Marietta Co- 
lumbo. According to Walter, Michaux, Mr. Wm. Bartram, and 
Mr. Elliott, it grows in Carolina and Georgia. The latter gen- 
tleman mentions that it has been found in Fairfield district and 
in Abbeville. 
The root is large, yellow, tuberose, hard, horizontal, spindle- 
shaped, sometimes two feet long, with few fibres. The whole 
plant is perfectly smooth. The stem from five to ten feet high, 
round, erect, solid, with few branches except at the top, where 
they form a pyramid of flowers. Leaves in whorls; the radical 
or root leaves form a star spread upon the ground, from five to 
twelve in number, from ten to eighteen inches long, and from 
three to five broad, constituting the whole plant in the first two 
years, or before the stem grows. The stem leaves are whorls, 
from four to eight, smaller than the radical leaves, Flowers 
yellowish white, numerous, forming a large pyramidal panicle, 
peduncles leafy or bracteate. Calyx deeply four cleft, spreading, 
segments lanceolate, acute, persistent, nearly as long as the 
corolla. Corolla with four elliptic segments flat and spreading, 
margin somewhat inflexed, a fimbriated pit in the centre of each. 
Stamens four, alternate, with the segments, filaments short, 
subulate, anthers oval, oblong. Ovary compressed, bearing a 
short style with two short stigmas. Capsule yellowish, oval, 
‘acuminate, compressed, margin thin, two-valved, one-seeded, 
Seeds flat, elliptical winged. The seeds grow in pods, shaped 
like a horse-bean, and are much like parsnip seeds. 
CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. 
The American Cotomso has been thought to resemble the 
foreign article, both in medical properties as well as in appear- 
ance, but experience has not confirmed the high estimate which 
‘was at one time formed of its virtues, and though perhaps it is 
still much employed both in regular and domestic practice in - 
