N. ORD. UMBELLIFERZ., 64 
GENUS.—ARCHANGELICA,* HOFFM. 
SEX. SYST.—PENTANDRIA DIGYNIA. 
ANGELICA 
A'TROPURPUREA. 
GREAT ANGELICA. 
SYN.—ARCHANGELICA ATROPURPUREA, HOFF.; ANGELICA ATROPUR- 
PUREA, LINN.; A. TRIQUINATA, MX.; IMPERATORIA LUCIDA, NUTT. 
COM. NAMES.—COMMON ANGELICA,;+ HIGH ANGELICA, MASTERWORT.} 
(GER.) PURPURFARBIGE ANGELICA. 
A TINCTURE OF THE WHOLE PLANT ARCHANGELICA ATROPURPUREA, HOFF. 
Description.—This strong-scented, perennial herb grows to a height of from 
4 to 6 feet. Root somewhat conical. Stem very stout, smooth, dark-purple, and 
hollow. Leaves 2 to 3 ternately-compound; /eaflets 5 to 7 pinnate, ovate, sharply 
cut-serrate, acute, and pale beneath, the three terminal ones often confluent and 
somewhat decurrent at the base. /nflorescence a globular compound umbel. /x- 
volucre little or none; imvolucels of very short, subulate leaflets. Ca/ya with very 
short teeth. Peta/s ovate, entire, with the sharp tips inflexed. /Avuz¢ smooth; 
carpels somewhat compressed, furnished with 3 rather prominent dorsal ribs, and 
the two lateral ones prolonged into marginal wings; z¢/e not on the pericarp, 
but surrounding the seed and adherent to its surface; seed convex upon the back 
and flattish upon the face, very loose in the pericarp. Read description of the 
order under 62. 
History and Habitat.—The Great Angelica is indigenous to N orth America, 
from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin northward, where it habits low grounds along 
streams, and flowers in June. 
When fresh the roots are poisonous, and are said to have been used for 
suicidal purposes by the Canadian Indians ; when dried, however, they lose this 
quality, and are then Considered carminative, diuretic, emmenagogue and stimu- 
lant. The dried root was often used, especially in combination with other and 
better-known diuretics, in anasarca and various diseases of the urinary organs; 
and alone in flatulent colic and suppressed menstruation. Dr. Schell claims§ that 
* This name alluded to its supposed high ange/ic properties. 
+ The common Garden Angelica is 4. archangelica. : 
t The true Masterwort is the European Imperatoria ostruthium, Linn.; the Cow Parsnip, Heracleum lanatum, Linn., 
is often wrongly called by this name. 
4 Fam. Guide to Health, 1856, corroborated in Am. Jour. Hom. Mat. Med.,\. 272. 
