No. 30. cYrnxFSBxuM. 143 



T— *■ 



This plant blossoms in May and June ; it Is much 

 valued in gardens for its beauty and singularity, but 

 it is difficult to cultivate : it will seldom grow from 

 seeds; tlie roojs must be taken up with earth round 

 them, and transplanted in a congenial rich light 

 soil. For medical use^ they must be collected in the 

 fall, or early in the springs carefully dried and re- 



' duced to powder. 



LocALiTT — Found all over the United States^ from 



* New England to Louisiana ; but very rare in some 

 places, while it is common in the hills and swamps 

 of New York, the Highlands, Green and Catskill 

 Mountains, and also in the glades and prairies of the 



■^Yestern Slates. 



Qualities — ^The roots are the only medical parts: 

 they have a pungent, mucilaginous taste, and a pe- 

 culiar smellj somewhat nauseous. They contain ex- 

 tractive, gum, fecula, and perhaps a small portion of 



essential oil. 



PROPEIITIES — It is with some satisfaction that 



I am enabled to introduce, for iho first time, tbistieau- 

 tiful genus into our Materia ISIedica : a!l the species 

 are equally medical ; they have long been known to 

 the Indians, who called them ISIocasin flower, and 

 were used by the Empirics of New England, parti- 

 cularly Samuel Thompson. Their properties how- 

 . ever have been tested and confirmed by Dr. Hales of 

 Troy, Dr. Tully of Albany, &c. The most efficient 



• is the C. hUeum, next C, acaide, and last C. spec- 

 ■ ' tabile^xiAC. canciidii;n. Neither Sehoepf nor any 



other medical writer has mentioned them. 



