VIOLA TRICOLOR. ORD. XIII. Campanaceeé. - , 255 
twisted at the base. Stigma round, obliquely perforated, perma- 
nent. Capsule one-celled, three-valved, containing numerous oval 
shining seeds. 
It grows in corn fields, waste and cultivated grounds, flowering all 
the summer months. 
This plant varies much by cultivation, and by the vivid colouring 
of its flowers often becomes extremely beautiful in gardens, where 
it is distinguished by various names. 
To the taste this plant, in its recent state, is extremely glutinous, 
or mucilaginous, accompanied with the commen herbaceous flavour 
and roughness. By distillation with water, according to Haase,* it 
affords a small quantity of odorous essential oil, of a somewhat acrid 
taste. The dried herb yields about half its weight of watery extract, 
the fresh plant about one-eighth. 
Though many of the old writers on the Materia Medica represent 
this plant as a powerful medicine in epilepsy, asthma, ulcers, scabies, 
and cutaneous complaints, yet the viola tricolor owes its present 
character as.a medicine to the modern authorities of Starck, 
Metzger,* Haase,* and others, especially as a remedy for the crusta 
lactea. For this purpose, a handful of the fresh herb, or half a 
dram of it dried, and boiled two hours in milk, is to be strained and 
taken night and morning. Bread, with this decoction, is also to be 
formed into a poultice, and applied tothe part. By this treatment 
it has been observed, that the eruption during the first eight days 
increases, and that the urine, when the medicine succeeds, has an 
odour similar to that of cats; but on continuing the use of the 
* De viola tricolore. Erlang. 1782. 
* De crusta lactea infantum ejusdemque remedio dissertatio, quam Acad. scient. 
Lugd. Gall. premio coronavit. 1776, France. ad Moen. 1779. See also London 
‘Medical Journal. vol. zt. 
¢ Verm, Med. Schriften. vol. 2. S dat 
© Armstrong’s publication on this subject we have not seen. In Sweden many 
testimonies of the good effects of this plant have been published. See Murray, 1. c, 
