332 FLORA HISTORICA. 



Dutch SivahiiO'Wortel ; and that is a translation 

 of the old appellation HiriuicUnaria, under which 

 it is found in the works of Otho Brunfelsius, and 

 some other botanical authors, who wrote about 

 the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the six- 

 teenth centuries. The idea of this name origin- 

 ated from a fancied resemblance of the follicles 

 or seeds to a swallow flying. 



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

 scribed in Martyn's edition of Miller, only two 

 are European plants, the remainder having been 

 collected from the East Indies, Africa, and Ame- 

 rica. 



The Officinal Swallow-wort, Asclepias Vince- 

 toxiciim, is a native of most parts of the continent 

 of Europe, and it is remarked by Linnaeus 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 pro- 

 perties, 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- 



