A8$ ORD. XXVI. Multisilique. RUTA GRAVEOLENS. 
sists of four and frequently of five petals, these are hollow or 
boat-shaped, dentated or fringed at the edges, and of a yellow 
colour; the ten filaments are yellow, tapering, spreading, and 
generally lodged in the cavity of the petals; the anthere are 
yellow and quadrangular; the style is short; the stigma is simple; 
and the germen is large, oval, green, rough, and marked by four 
longitudinal furrows; the seeds are angular, rough, and of a 
blackish colour. The shrub is a native of the South of Europe, 
and flowers in June and September. 
The first account we have of the cultivation of Rue in Britain, 
is given by Turner, who published his Herbal in 1562.* It is now 
extremely common in our gardens, where it retains its verdure the 
whole year. Rue hasa strong ungrateful smell, and a bitter, hot, 
penetrating taste; the leaves are so acrid, that by much handling 
they are said to irritate and inflame the skin; and the plant, in its 
natural or uncultivated state, is reported to possess these sensible 
qualities still more powerfully. Both water and rectified spirit 
extract its virtues, but the latter more perfectly than the former.* 
Rue was much used by the ancients, who ascribed to it many 
virtues. Hippocrates commends it as a resolvent and diuretic, and 
attributes to it the power of resisting the action of contagion, and 
other kinds of poisons, and with this intention it was used by 
Mithridates:” this imaginary quality ¢ of the Ruta, is now however 
* Vide Hort. Kew. 
-* From the experiments of Beaumé it appears, that the recent plant contains 
but a very small portion of essential oil: thus from 21 1b. of the leaves he scareely 
obtained a dram, while 10 1b. of the seeds yielded two ounces. Berg. M. M. p. 350. 
* In sanctuariis Mithridatis maximi regis devicti, Cn. Pompeius invenit, in pecu- 
Nari commentario ipsius manu, compositionem antidoti, e duabus nucibus siccis, 
item ficis totidem & rute foliis viginti simul tritis, addito salis grano: & qui hoe 
jejunus sumat, nullum venenum nociturum illo die. Plin. L. 23. c. 8. p. 604. 
{ “ One virtue particularly aseribed to Rue, that of resisting contagion, or of 
expelling it when taken in, I held to be absolutely without foundation,” —Cullen 
M. M. v. ii. p. 365, 
