CARDAMINE PRATENSIS.. ORD. XXIII. Siliquose. 397 
cruciform, and of a purplish white colour ; the petals are obversely 
veined, somewhat notched at the apex, and yellowish at the base ; 
the filaments are six, four long and two short, invested at the 
bottom with four nectareous glands; the anthere are small, 
oblong, and placed upright upon the summits of the filaments ; 
there is no style; the germen is round, slender, about the length 
of the stamina, and becomes a long compressed pod of two valves, 
which, on opening, roll back in a spiral manner, and in the cells 
are contained many round seeds. It is common in meadows and 
moist pastures, producing its flowers in April and May. 
This plant has the same sensible qualities as water-cress, though 
in an inferior degree to it, and indeed to most of that class of 
‘plants, called by Dr. Cullen siliquose, which comprehends both 
the orders of siliquosa and siliculosa of Linnzeus, and the cruciform 
of Tournefort. It is the flower of the Cardamine which has a place 
‘in the Materia Medica of the British Pharmacopeeias, upon the 
authority of Sir George Baker. who, in the year 1767, read a paper 
at the London College, recommending these flowers as an anti- 
spasmodic remedy,* which has since been published in the Medi- 
cal Transactions.* In this account Sir George relates five cases‘ 
wherein the flores cardamines were successfully used; and in a 
P.S. to the second edition, he says, “ Since the first edition of 
this volume, I have seen several instances of the good effects of 
flores cardamines in convulsive disorders.” In Epilepsy, however, 
~ ® We find no account of the use of these flowers but by Dale, who says of the 
plant, “+ Calida & acris est, & nasturtii pollet viribus. Flos in conyulsionibus 
laudatur ex MSS. D. ‘Tancred Robinson, M.D.” Pharmacol, 204. 
® Medical Transactions, vol. 1. 442. 
© Viz. two of chorea sancti Viti, one of spasmodic asthma, an hemiplegia ac. 
_companied with convulsions on the palsied side, and a case of remarkable 
spasmodic affections of the lower limbs; the two first were cured in less than a 
‘month; the two ‘second were also happily removed: but in the last case the 
“patient had experienced some relief from the flor. card. when she was seized with 
.a fever which proved fatal. Scel. c. 
No, 34.—vou. 3 5 
