140 ORD. VI. Umbellate. SIUM NODIFLORUM, 
THE root is perennial, long, creeping, and hung with numerous 
fibres: the stem is jointed, thick, succulent, scored, procumbent, 
branched, and seldom reaches a foot in Jength: the leaves are pin- 
nated, consisting of three or four pairs of pinnze, terminated by an 
odd one; the pinnz or segments are ovate, pointed, serrated, sessile: 
the flowers are small, and stand in axillary umbels, which are com- 
posed of from six to nine general radii, and about an equal number 
of partial radii: there is no general involucrum, but the partial one 
consists of five, six, or seven ovate pointed leafits: ‘the corolla is 
composed of five petals, which are entire, ovalish,. white, largest at 
the circumference, and bent inwards at their apices: the five fila- 
ments are slender, spreading, rather longer than the corolla, and 
furnished with roundish anther: the germen is small, placed be- 
neath the corolla, and supports two slender reflexed styles, termi- 
nated by blunt stigmata: the fruit is egg-shaped, small, scored, 
divisible, into two seeds, which are flat on one side, on the other 
convex and scored. It is common in rivers and ditches, and flowers 
in July and August. 
_ This plant is not iesiead | into the Materia Medita of ‘any of tle 
Einwecanee: which we have seen, except . that! of the London 
College, where it has lately been received in the character of an 
_antiscorbutic, or rather as a corrector of acrid humours, especially 
when manifested by cutaneous eruptions and tumours in the lym- 
phatic system, for which we have the testimony. of Beirie* and 
Ray.’ . But the best proofs of its efficacy are the followmg given 
by Dr. Withering : “hk young lady, six years old, was cured of an 
obstinate cutaneous disease, by taking three large spoonfuls of the 
juice twice a day: andI have repeatedly given to adults three or 
four ounces every morning, in similar complaints, with the greatest 
advantage. It is not nauseous, and children take it readily if mixed 
with milk. In the dose I have given it, it nerther affects the head, 
the stomach, nor the bowels.”* 
*Seed.c. » Dict. de la Mat. Med. © Synop. p. 213. 
