306 FLORA HISTORICA. 



plant, but in modern practice it is but little used, 

 although acknowledged to be of great value in some 

 of the most obstinate diseases of the human body ; 

 but as its volatile and acrimonious particles are 

 nearly lost when the plant is in a dry state, we must 

 not be surprised that it should be discarded from 

 the shops. Mr- J. A. Waller tells us, in his British 

 Domestic Herbal , that a few years back he witnessed 

 a most alarming case of dropsy, accompanied with 

 every sign of an exhausted constitution, treated by 

 a prescription of Sydenham, of which the Arum 

 and Angelica formed the most prominent articles. 

 The success of this treatment was most astonishing, 

 for all the symptoms of the most alarming general 

 dropsy disappeared in less than three weeks. Ett- 

 muller extols the fresh -prepared root as a most ex- 

 cellent stomachic in cases of extreme prostration of 

 appetite. He recommends the root to be cut into 

 very small pieces, and taken in brandy. But we 

 must leave the physicians for the notice of the 

 poets, who have made the Arum the emblem of 

 ardour. 



Mrs. Frances Arabella Rowden thus cautions 

 children against the berries of the Arum : — 



Oh ! wander not where Dragon Arum showers 

 Her baleful dews, and twines her purple flowers, 

 Lest round thy neck she throw her snaring arms, 

 Sap thy life's blood, and riot on thy charms, 



