SAXIFRAGA GRANULATA. ORD, XXX. Suceulenie. 551. 
filaments, furnished with hollow stigmata. Capsule somewhat 
oval, two-celled, and furnished with two beaks or horns. Seeds 
numerous, very small, black. 
It is a-native of England, but, not very commonly met; with : 
dry meadows and pastures are the situations it affects. Its flowert 
appear in April and May. 
Linnzus describes the taste of this plant to be acrid and pun- - 
gent, which we have not been able to discover: neither the 
tubercles of (the root, nor. the leayes manifest to the organs of 
taste any quality likely to be of medicinal use, and therefore 
thowh’ this species of Saxifrage has been long employed as a 
popular’ remedy in’ nephritic and gravelly disorders, yet. we do 
not find either from its sensible qualities, or from any published 
instances of its efficacy, that it deserves a place in the Materia 
Medica. 
The superstitious doctrine of Signatures suggested the use of the 
root, which is a good example of what Linneus has termed radix 
granulata. The bulbs or tubercles of such roots answer an impor- 
tant purpose in vegetation, by supplying the plants with nourish- 
ment and moisture, and thereby enabling them to resist the effects 
of that drought to which’ the eg soils they inhabit peculiarly 
expose ‘them. 
Sedum Telephium (Orpine) is also admitted of the Materia 
Medica in the foreign pharmacopeeias; it has not the acrid 
characters ‘of the species here figured, but on the contrary is 
bland and mucilaginous.- It is said to be diuretic, and, according 
to Dr. Withering, is used with success to cure the piles. Simper- 
vivum tectorum (common House-leek) which is nearly allied to 
the Telephium in botanical affinity, likewise abounds with a muci- 
laginous j juice, said to be an useful application to burns, creeping 
ulcers} and in apthous cases. Cactus Opuntia (common Indian 
Fig) and Portulaca oleracea (Garden Purslane ) both of this 
natural order, afford a similar juice, which also has been applied 
to medical purposes. 
