PHARMACOPG:IAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
action of the heart, was indicated through its native employment as 
an ordeal poison. 
PHYTOLACCA 
Poke root, Phytolacca decandra, is a handsome plant found 
throughout the temperate regions of North America, east of the Miss- 
issippi River, thriving in rich bottom lands, fence corners, and woody 
pastures. The American Indians used it, powdered to a pulp, as a 
poultice. The early American settlers applied it in like manner as 
a poultice to inflammatory conditions of the cow’s udder, in the dis- 
ease known as garget, a circumstance which has given to the plant 
one of its common names, garget plant. Phytolacca crept thence 
into more extensive use in domestic medicine, a tincture of the same 
being next employed. Following this came its introduction into the 
“licensed” profession. In domestic medication the drug was employed 
from the date of the early settlers, and in the practice of Eclecticism 
it has ever been a valued remedy. To cite American references to this 
drug would be to name all the publications of the liberal authors con- 
nected with medicines. 
PILOCARPUS 
Pilocarpus jaborandi is a shrub native to Eastern Brazil, where 
Piso (511), of Holland, 1643, first mentions its use as a modifier of 
the infusion of ipecac. Plumier, 1693, also (515) refers to the mix- 
ture, describing two varieties of jaborandi. Its conspicuous introduc- 
tion to medicine occurred in 1874, when Dr. Coutinho (170), of Per- 
nambuco, from observing its native uses, made its qualities as a sialo- 
gogue known to the medical world. The plant has been cultivated in 
European greenhouses since the middle of the last century, but no 
“scientific” observer gave it the honor of a thought in therapeutic di- 
rections. 
PIMENTA 
Allspice (Pimenta officinalis) is the berry of a tree native to 
Jamaica and other West India islands, where it was found in use as 
a spice by the explorers in the days of the enthusiasm of the new world 
discovery. It was probably this substance that Garret, a druggist of 
London, 1601, gave to Clusius (153), who described it in his Liber 
Exoticorum. According to Parkinson’s (492) Theatrum Botanicum, 
1567, it was imported into England soon after the beginning of that 
century, under the name round cardamom. It has received many dif- 
ferent names in its passage through various countries. Its chief use 
= as Ay spice, but a distilled water made therefrom has also been em- 
ployed. 
PIPER 
Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a perennial, climbing shrub na- 
tive to the forests of Malabar and Travancore, whence it was intro- 
duced to other tropical countries, such as Sumatra, the Philippines, 
West Indies, and the Malay Peninsula. It has been used as a spice 
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