SPIGELIA MARILANDICA. | 9 
with stipules, which adhere to the leaf-stalks, or are combined in the form of interpetiolary sheaths. (Lindley. Veg. 
King.) i 3 , 
This order has been subdivided into Spigehee, Strychnee, and Loganee. 
SPIGELIE A. 
LINDLEY. 
SpicELIACEZ.— Martius. 
EssentiaL Cuar.—Leaves furnished with stipules. Flowers isomeric; estivation of the corolla valvate, capsules 
didymous, many-seeded, seeds without wings. Embryo small, cotyledons little conspicuous. Warm parts of the 
New World, and in New Holland; a few species in tropical Asia. (Royle.) 
SPIGELIA MARILANDICA., 
LINNAEUS. 
CAROLINA PINK. 
Sex. Syst.—Pentandria, Monogynia. 
Gen. Cuar.—Calyz five parted. Corolla funnel-shaped, with a five cleft equal limb. Anthers converging. 
Capsule didymous, two-celled, four-valved, many-seeded. (Nuttall. Lindley.) 
Srecir. Cuar.—Root fibrous, perennial. Stem herbaceous, six to twenty inches high, branching near the base, 
(angular, ) slightly winged, towards the summit pubescent. Leaves sessile, ovate-lanceolate, acute, with the margin 
and veins underneath pubescent. Flowers in a simple terminal secund raceme. Calyz five-leaved, persistent, leaves 
subulate acute, finely serrulate. Corolla monopetalous, tube angled, ventricose, five times as long as the calyx, yellow 
within, crimson without, border five-cleft, segments acute, somewhat expanded. SF t/aments shorter than the corolla, 
inserted into the tube between the segments. Anthers oblong, cordate, two-celled, yellow. Germ superior, ovate. 
Style longer than the corolla, jointed at its base. Stzgma simple, obtuse. (Elhot.) The Capsule is sub-rotund, didy- 
mous, two-celled, four-valved. Seeds numerous, angular, scabrous. ( Willdenow.) 
This is a very beautiful plant; it was supposed to be a Lonisera by Linneus, but afterwards called by its present 
name. It grows in the Southern and South-western States abundantly, rarely penetrating into the Middle States. It 
grows in rich dry soils, on the borders of woods, flowering from May to July, and ripening its seeds in the autumn. 
The root is the officinal portion ; it consists of an immense bunch of downy fibres, half a foot in length, proceeding 
from a small knotted rhizoma; they are of a brown colour, have a weak odour, and a bitter taste. The herbaceous 
portion is sometimes employed, but it is decidedly inferior. The root was formerly collected by the Cherokee and 
Creek Indians, but now by the settlers. eS 
Spigelia root contains bitter extractive, and acrid resin. Its medical properties are those of an anthelmintic, but 
it has also an effect upon the brain and spinal marrow, producing vertigo, dimness of vision, dilatation of the pupils 
and Spasms or convulsions. As an anthelmintic, its mode of operation seems to be connected with thi 
=i ee voided after its exhibition, either dead or torpid. A knowledge of it originated with the aborigines, 
ought prominently before the medical profession by Drs. Garden, Lining, and Chambers. It is given 
in powder or infusion, followed by or combined with a cathartic, as senna. 
Pate LVII.—Represents the plant in Jlomer, and the reproductive organs. 
VOL. If. 3 
S action, as intes- 
