RANUNCULACEiZ. 



3. C. Vitalba Linn. sp. pi. 766. Fl. Lond. t. 37. Eng. Bot. 

 t. 612. Smith Eng. fl. hi. 39. — A/a^Ao? aypta, Dioscorid. 

 AypioafATteXi, Modern Greek. — Common in hedges and thickets 

 all over the middle and south of Europe ; also in the Crimea. 

 (Traveller's joy.) 



Stem woody, angular, climbing to a great extent, or pendulous, 

 branched, entangled, supported on other shrubs by the permanent, 

 hardened, twining footstalks. Leaves deciduous ; their leaflets 5, 

 stalked, heart-shaped, pointed, finely hairy, either quite entire, une- 

 qually cut, or coarsely serrated. Panicles axillary and terminal, forked, 

 many-flowered, downy. Flowers white, with a sweet almond-like scent. 

 Petals 4, most downy on the outside. Carpels with long feathery 

 tails. — Both fruit and leaves acrid and vesicant ; dangerous taken 

 internally. The latter have been used as a rubefacient in the treatment 

 of rheumatism. 



4. C. dioica Linn. sp. 765. DC. syst. i. 143. prodr. i. 4. 

 Macfady.fl. jam. i. 2. — (Sloane t. 128. f. 1.) — Lower hills of 

 Jamaica. 



A large rambling shrub, with furrowed purplish branches. Leaves 

 ternate; leaflets ovate, rather heart-shaped, acuminate, smooth, some- 

 times confluent. Flowers small, greenish, dioecious, panicled. Pedicels 

 downy. Sepals oblong, downy, reflexed. Stamens the length of the 

 sepals. Carpels downy, terminated by a long feathery tail. — Leaves hot 

 and acrid ; bruised and applied to the skin they act as a rubefacient 

 or even blister. An infusion of the bruised leaves and flowers forms 

 a good lotion for the removal of spots and freckles from the skin. A 

 decoction of the root in sea water is said to act as a powerful purge in 

 hydropic cases. Macfadycn. 



5. C. Mauritiana Lam. diet. ii. 42. — Used by the negroes 

 in the Isle of France to raise blisters on the cheek to allay the 

 pain of toothach. Commerson. 



ANEMONE. 



Involucre of 3 leaves, a short distance below the flower ; 

 its leaflets cut. Sepals 5-15, petaloid. Petals 0. Achenia 

 either ending in tail-like styles, or tailless. 



6. A. Pulsatilla Linn. sp. pi. 759. Fl. dan. t. 153. Eng. 

 Bot. t. 51. DC. prodr. i. 17. — Dry woodland ground and 

 open hills all over Europe, and in Siberia : flowering early in 

 the spring. 



Leaves pinnated; segments many-parted, with linear lobes, hairy, 

 sometimes quite shaggy. Flower slightly nodding, usually purple, but 

 varying to many other colours of the cyanic series. Sepals 6, spread- 

 ing. Fruit with long bearded tails. — The powder of the root causes 

 itching of the eyes, colic, and vomiting, if in pulverising it the 

 operator do not avoid the fine dust which is driven up. Bulliard 

 relates the case of a man who, in consequence of applying the bruised 

 root to his calf for rheumatism, was attacked with inflammation and 

 gangrene of the whole leg. Christison. An extract has, however, 

 been used in obstinate cases of taenia. 



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