1865.] GIBB — ON SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS. 433 



America, as a pigment, a dyeing agent, and a medicine. For what 

 maladies it was originally given as a remedy, it is impossible now 

 to determine. Charlevoix appears to be the first writer who men- 

 tions its employment as a medicine, when using the expression, 

 •" s'est souvent servi de la racine de cette plante pour provoquer les 

 mois," in other words it was administered as an emmenagogue. 

 The first printed notice of the plant is briefly given in the " His- 

 toria Canadensium Plantarum" by Jac. Cornuti, Paris, 1635. He 

 describes it as the Ohelidonium maximum Canadense axavAop, — 

 receiving this name, he observes, from its similitude to the Oheli- 

 donium species of plant, and from its flowering in the spring. 



The second notice of it occurs in a curious old book, entitled 

 " Theatrum Botanicum, or the Theatre of Plants, by John Park- 

 inson, apothecary, London, 1630." At page 617, is given an erro- 

 neous description of the plant, but under the same name as that 

 adopted by Cornuti, and styled in English, the " Great Celandine 

 of Canada." Singularly enough, however, at page 327, the actual 

 plant itself is very correctly given with woodcut, and wrongly named 

 Ranunculus Virginiensis albus, the white Virginian Crow-foot. The 

 error thus committed did not escape the notice of a subsequent 

 writer, of whom I shall presently speak. It cannot be positively 

 inferred from Parkinson's writings that the plant was cultivated 

 in England ; probably it was, and seen by Parkinson himself, else 

 he could have hardly given such an accurate account of it. Mor- 

 rison, however, settles the point of its early culture in that country, 

 when he states that seeds of the plants had been sent to him from 

 Canada and Virginia, which had propagated abundantly in a sub- 

 urban garden near London. 



Charlevoix — no mean authority in anything pertaining to Can- 

 ada — has adopted Cornuti's name in his description of the plant, 

 and moreover styles it the Dragon's Blood of Canada, i* Sang 

 Dragon du Canada." He gives a nlore correct account and ex- 

 tended description of it than Cornuti, and a woodcut somewhat 

 more accurate than that given by Parkinson. 



The clearest and most accurate description, however, of this in- 

 teresting plant, is to be found in the " Hortus Elthamensis seu 

 Plantarum Rariorum," of Joh. Jac. Dillenius, in which several 

 figures of the plant are given, colored most naturally, under the 

 name of Sanguinaria major et minor. The name was derived 

 from Sanguis, blood, from the blood-red color of the juice which 

 flows from the rhizome and petioles when wounded. On looking 



