CAPPARIS SPINOSA. 
gardens and in cultivated fields, and is generally called Mole 
Plant under the impression that moles avoid the ground where 
it grows. 
The plant grows spontaneously in the more southern parts of 
Europe, especially in Italy and the Levant; in its wild state it 
forms a shrub of low growth having numerous spreading spinous 
branches, somewhat thickly beset with smooth roundish leaves. 
The blossoms grow alternately on the branches, and when the 
plant begins to flower, one opens generally every other morning, 
but so delicate are its parts, that on a hot summer’s day it fades 
before noon. The petals are white. The filaments which are 
extremely numerous, are white below and of a rich purple color 
above, in these the beauty of the flower chiefly consists, as in 
the pestillum does its great singularity. At first view, it would 
appear that the part so conspicuous in the center of the flower 
was the style terminated by the stigma in the usual way, but if 
this part of the flower is traced to a more advanced state, it will 
be seen that what was supposed the style, is merely an elonga- 
tion of the flower-stalk, and what was supposed the stigma, is in 
reality the germen placed on it, crowned with a minute stigma, 
without any intervening style. This germen swells, turns down- 
ward, and ultimately becomes the seed vessel, rarely ripening 
in northern or cold climates. 
The plant is with difficulty preserved by cultivation, for it — 
delights to grow in crevices of rocks, and the joints of old walls — 
and ruins, and always thrives best in a horizontal position. [t 
flowers in May and June, and is usually raised from seeds. ce 
A plant stood near a century against the wall of the garden 
of Camden House, Kensington, (near London,) it produced many 
flowers annually, though the young shoots were frequently 2 
killed to the stump during the Winter - 
CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. 
‘The dried bark of the root of Carparis Sprvosa was formerly — 
officinal. It is in pieces partially or wholly quilled, about one 5 
_ third of an inch in mean diameter, transversely wrinkled, grayish ee 
externally, whitish within, inodorons and of a bitterish, some- 
what acrid and aromatic taste. It is considered diuretic and : 
~ was formerly employed in obstructions of the liver and. 
> _-hheeotthaee and chronic rheumatism. es oe Se a4 — 
oo pickle, the flower buds of the = 
