POLYGONUM BisTorTA, ORD. XL. Oleracee. 668 
purple ; the styles are three, about the length of the stamina; the 
stigmata are small and round; the germen is triangular, of a red 
colour, and the seeds are brown and remarkably glossy. 
Bistort * is a native of Britain ;* it grows in moist meadows,* and 
flowers in May and September. Every part of the plant manifests 
a degree of stipticity to the taste, and the root is esteemed to be 
one of the most powerful of the vegetable astringents. Lewis says, 
that this “ astringent matter is totally dissolved both by water and 
rectified spirit ; the root, after the action of a sufficient quantity 
‘of either menstruum, remaining insipid >on inspissating the tinc- 
tures, the water and spirit arise unflavoured, leaving extracts of 
intense stipticity.” “ 
The root of Bistort was formerly considered to be alexipharmic 
and sudorific; but its uses seem only to be derived. from its styptic 
powers; it is therefore chiefly indicated in hemorrhages and other 
immoderate fluxes. Dr. Cullen observes, that the Bistora, “ both 
by its sensible qualities, and by the colour it gives with green 
vitriol, and by the extracts it affords, seems to be one of the 
strongest of our vegetable astringents, and is justly commended 
for every virtue that has been ascribed to any other. As such we 
have frequently employed it, and particularly in intermittent 
fevers, and in larger doses than those commonly mentioned in 
Materia Medica writers. Both by itself, and along with gentian, 
we have given it to the quantity of three drams a day.”* The 
dose of the root in substance is from a scruple to a dram. 
* Bistora, ware bis torta, twice twisted, or wreathen, is a modern name. 
Alston M: M. i. 339. “ Radix est serpentis modo intorta.”” Whence it was 
called Be nes Ciba and Dracunculus. And it has been variously con- 
sidered to be the Oxylapathum, Britannica, and Limonium of the ancients, Vide 
Bauh. Pin. 192. Matth. 946. 
* In the North of England this plant is known by the name of partes 2s 
and the young leaves are eaten in herb pudding. 
* It grows about Battersea, and by the side of Bishop’s Wood near : Hampstead. 
Curt. Flor, Lond. © Mat. Med. 154. ¢ Mat. Med. ii. 40. 
No. 50.—vot. 4. 8c 
