306 FLORA HISTORICA. 



some other botanical authors, who wrote about the 

 end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth 

 centuries. The idea of this name originated from 

 a fancied resemblance of the folUcles or seeds to a 

 swallow flying. 



Of the thirty-four species of Swallow-wort de- 

 scribed in Marty n's edition of Miller, only two are 

 European plants, the remainder having been col- 

 lected from the East Indies, Africa, and America. 



The Officinal Swallow-wort, Asclepias Vince- 

 toxicum, is a native of most parts of the continent 

 of Europe, and it is remarked by Linnseus as being 

 singular that it should not be found wild in Great 

 Britain. Dr. Turner describes this plant, and 

 writes at some length on its medicinal properties, 

 in 1564, but says he had not seen it in England ; 

 therefore its introduction to this country appears 

 to have been between that time and the year 

 1596, when Gerard tells us that it was growing 

 in his garden, together with the Black Swallow- 

 wort, Asclepias Nigra, which is indigenous to the 

 South of France, the mountains about Nice, and 

 Spain. This author says " our London gentle- 

 women haue named it Silken Cislie," from the 

 seeds being surrounded with a white substance 

 resembhng silk. 



These plants flower from June to September ; 

 they have no great beauty to recommend them to 



