PHARMACOPGIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
Gerarde’s (262) Herbal, and it is commonly believed that this was its 
introduction to England. Others, however, question whether the 
“snakeweed” mentioned in this work was not a species of aristolochia, 
from Crete. The early use of serpentaria in America was as a remedy 
for snakebite, which gave it the name Virginia snakeroot, but in this 
direction it has not, to our knowledge, been used in recent times any- 
where in America. The domestic use of this drug has been in the 
direction of a stimulant to the organs of digestion, and in the form 
of a tincture as a stomachic, it being one of the ingredients of the 
old-time popular stomach bitters of American home medication. 
SINAPIS ALBA 
White mustard (Sinapis alba) seems to be indigenous to the 
southern countries of Europe and Western Asia, from which, accord- 
ing to Chinese authors, it was introduced into China. Formerly it 
was not distinguished from black mustard. Its cultivation in England 
is quite recent, but it is now an abundant weed in many sections. 
White mustard, in common with black mustard, is an exceedingly pop- 
ular, stimulating condiment, and is preferred, on account of its color 
as well as its mildness, to the black mustard. ‘The “mustard seed” 
of the Bible is the product of a tree (Salvadora persica), and is not 
the same as the plant now known under that name. (J. H. Balfour, 
Piants of the Bible.) 
SINAPIS NIGRA 
Black mustard (Sinapis nigra) is an herb found over the whole 
of Europe, excepting the extreme north. It also abounds in Northern 
Africa, Asia Minor, the Caucasian region, Western India, Southern 
Siberia, and China, as well as in North and South America, where it 
is now naturalized. It was known to the ancients, Theophrastus (633), 
Dioscorides (194), Pliny (514), and others noticing the plant. In 
early times it seems to have been used more as a medicine than as a 
condiment ; but 300 B. C., Diocletian speaks of it as a substance used 
as a condiment in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. During the 
Middle Ages, Europeans esteemed it as an accompaniment to salted 
meats. The Welsh “Meddygon Myddfai” (see Note, page 1) (507), 
of the thirteenth century, commends the “Virtues of Mustard.” 
Household recipes of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries constantly 
mention mustard under the name senapium. The convent lands of 
France produced it as a part of their revenues, A. D. 800. Black 
mustard is naturally of great importance, the credit of its introduction 
being, as with other substances of a similar nature, due to the observ- 
ing “empiricists.” The Bible reference (see Sinapis alba) applies alike 
to Sinapis nigra. 
SPIGELIA 
Spigelia marilandica is an American plant, indigenous to the 
temperate regions and thick woods of this country. The Indians em- 
ployed a decoction of the root as a vermifuge, thus introducing it at 
82 
