42 Poe ORD. Ill. Composite. - ARNICA MONTANA, 
{ 
Mr. Pp Miller in 1759. * The stalk grows above one foot high, ' 
erect, roundish, striated, rough, hairy. The radical leaves are oval, 
narrow at their bases, and more obtusely lanceolated than the 
cauline leaves. On the stalk they are sessil, entire, oval, obtusely 
lance-shaped, and stand in pairs: the flowers are large, yellow, 
radiated, solitary, terminal, appearing in July: the calyx is imbricated, 
and consists of a single row of narrow, pointed, rough leaflets: the 
root is perennial, thick, fleshy, and spreading. 
The odour of the fresh plant is rather unpleasant, and the taste 
acrid, herbaceous, and astringent; a watery infusion of it strikes a 
black colour by the addition of sal martis’, and the powdered leaves 
act as a strong sternutatory. 
That the Arnica is a medicine of considerable activity there cannot 
be a doubt; but how far it deserves the extravagant praises it has 
received at Vienna, is not for us to determine; either the facts stated 
by Dr. Collin are not admitted by the physicians of this country, or 
we are disregardful* of a remedy of the first importance in the 
aes Medica. 
But as our iness is to adduce whatever is recorded of each 
plant by authors of respectability, (whether of Arnica or Hemlock) 
still the medical reader must form his own judgment of the eyi- | 
dence. 
The virtues of this plnt®, according to Bergius, are emetica, 
errhina, diuretica, diaphoretica, emmenagoga, and from its supposed 
power of attenuating the blood, it has been esteemed so peculiarly 
efficacious in obviating the bad consequences occasioned by falls and 
* Hortus Kewensis, vol. 3. p. 226. 
Ag Bergius, M. M. 683. 
— has not been able to procure this plant from any of the London 
druggists, 
‘wThereina a variety of this species with narrower leaves, which is more powerfully 
a Gmelin ‘lor. Sibir t. 2. p. 153. 
= 
titi 
ar oe 
is 
