BOTANIC MATERIA MEDICA, 43 
ing to this family of perennial plants. It attains 
a height of from r to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters), 
with an erect stem, hairy and rough, with many 
leaves; flowers in umbels, which are of an 
orange-red color, hooded; leaves oblong, and 
lancéolate and sessile, or with very short petiobs; 
calyx, 5 parted; 5 stamens on the base of the 
corolla; filaments united in a tube, which in- 
closes the pistil; anthers adherent to the stigma. 
Pleurisy root is found growing from Georgia to 
Texas, and, as found in commerce, the root is 
large and fusiform in character, from 34 to 6 
inches (2 to 15 centimeters) long and 34 of an 
inch (20 millimeters) in diameter. Externally 
it is of a brownish-yellow, while internally it is 
of a dirty-white, and much wrinkled. The bark 
is thin and in two distinct layers. It is said to 
contain mucilage, starch, and tannin, with two 
distinct resins, a glucoside. Its medicinal prop- 
erties are expectorant, sodorific, carminative, 
and anodyne. Dose, 15 to 60 grains (1 to 4 
grams). Not offiicinal, but much used in 
domestic practice in the form of a decoction. 
3 i of the root to the pint of boiling water. 
Asclepias Cornuti, Common Milkweed.— 
Natural order Asclepiadacez. Common names’ 
silkweed, wild cotton, etc. Found growing in 
all parts of the United States. It contains a 
peculiar crystalline principle of a resinous char- 
acter, known as asclepione; otherwise it differs 
little from the known varieties. The family of 
Asclepiadacez are known by their milky juice, 
whorled and entire leaves, follicular pods, seed, 
and anthers, connected with the stigmas, the 
cohesive properties of the pollen and its wax- 
