PARIS QUADR1F0LIA. 99 



read that it was one of the Aconites called Pardalianches, and 



so by consequence of a poisoning qualitie, they gave it unto 

 dogs and lambes, who received no hurt by the same ; where- 

 fore they further prosecuted the experience thereof, and gave 

 unto two dogs, fast bound or coupled together, a dram of 

 arsenicke, and one dram of mercurie sublimate, mixed with 

 flesh, which the dogs would not willingly eat, and therefore 

 they had it crammed clown their throats. Unto one of these 

 dogs they gave this plant as an antidote, whereby he recovered 

 his former health again in a few hours; but the other dog, 

 which had none of the medicine, died incontinently. 



€t The people of Germany do use the leaves of Paris Herb 

 in green wounds, for which it is very good, as reporteth 

 Joachimus Camerarius, who believed that the powder of the 

 root, given to drinke, doth speedily cease the gripings and 

 paine of the colicke." 



Parkinson says : u The roots boiled in wine help the colic, 

 and the leaves applied outwardly repress tumours and inflam- 



mations." 



According to Coste and "Willemet, the root may be given in 

 doses of one or two scruples, as an emetic, instead of Ipeca- 

 cuanha. 



The leaves and berries have been given in allopathic medi- 

 cine, as an antispasmodic in the hooping-cough, and various 

 convulsive diseases, with the caution that great care is neces- 

 sary in exhibiting this medicine, as convulsions and death are 



caused by an over-dose. 



At Calonga, in Russia, the leaves, before the maturity of the 



seeds, are prescribed against madness. 



Description. — The plant is perennial, and flowers in May 

 and June. The root is creeping, somewhat fleshy. Stem quite 

 simple, from eight to twelve inches high, upright, smooth, 

 round, and naked, except at the top. The leaves are broadly 

 egg-shaped, oval, or inversely egg-shaped, pointed, growing 

 in a whorl at the top of the stem, usually four, rarely three, 



