45-2 
Stamens 4 to 8, monadelphous or diadelphous; azthers innate, 1-celled, opening 
at the top by a pore or chink. Séy/e curved and hooded. /vu7zt a 2-celled and 
2-seeded capsule. 
The only remedy furnished to our Materia Medica by this order, beside Senega, 
is the Peruvian or Red Ratanhia (Avameria triandra, R. et Pav.), for which many 
other species are often substituted in general medicine, viz.: the Mexican and 
Brazilian Savanilla or Violet Ratanhia (A. /x7va, Linn.); the Para or Brown 
Rhatany (A. argentea, Mart.); the North American A. Zanceolata, Torr.; the 
Texan A. secundiflora, D,C.; and the Chilian A. cistotdea, Hook. The genus 
Polygala furnishes many plants noted as tonics, alexiterics, cathartics, and dia- 
phoretics, notable amongst them being the North American sanguinea, L.; the 
European P. amara, L., and rubella, Muhl.; the Austrian P. chamebuxus, 
the British P. vu/garis, L.; and the Nepaul P. crotalarioides, D.C. The Brazilian 
P. Poaya, L., is strongly emetic when fresh, and is considered scarcely inferior in 
its action to Ipecacuanha; while the Javanese P. venenosa, Juss., is so dreaded as 
a virulent poison that the natives refuse to touch it. The East Indian Souamea 
amara, I), C., is a valuable febrifuge, used with marked success in pleurisy and 
Asiatic cholera; and Bardiera diversifolia is considered an energetic diuretic and 
sudorific. The Peruvian astringents, termed by the natives Za//hoy, derived from 
Monninia polystachia, petrocarpa, and salicifolia, R. et Pav., are excellent anti- 
dysenterics, and, on account of the saponin-like body, #zonninin, contained in them, 
are also used as detergents and dentifrices, 
History and Habitat.—Senega Snakeroot is indigenous to North America, 
growing in rocky soils, from New England northwest to the Saskatchewan River 
and thence southward. It flowers in May and June. 
About the year 1735, John Tennent, a Scotch physician, noted that the Seneca 
Indians obtained excellent effects from a certain plant, as a remedy for the bite of 
the rattlesnake; after considerable painstaking and much bribing, he was shown 
the roots and given to understand that what is now known to be Seneca Snake- 
root was the agent used. Noting, then, that the symptoms of the bite were similar 
in some respects to those of pleurisy and the latter stages of peripneumonia, he 
conceived the idea of using this root also in those diseases. His success was such 
that he wrote to Dr. Mead, of London, the results of his experiments.* His epistle 
was printed at Edinburgh in 1738, and the new drug favorably received through- 
out Europe, and cultivated in England in 1739. The action of Seneka was claimed 
to be that of a stimulating expectorant, thus claiming usage in the latter stages of 
croup, pneumonia, humid asthma in the aged, etc.; also, when pushed to diuresis — 
and diaphoresis, it was found valuable in rheumatism, anasarca from renal troubles, 
amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhcea, and kindred complaints. Among the German physi- 
cians Seneka received praise in the treatment of ophthalmia after the inflammatory 
period had passed; and was claimed by Dr. Ammon to prevent the formation of 
cataract, and promote the formation of pus in hypopyon. The use of Seneka against 
* Tennent, Zpist. to Dr. Richard Mead concerning the Efidemical Diseases of Virginia, etc. 
