NAT. ORDER. ROTACE^. (j'J 



three, and tlie capsule has three cells, which contain many small, ob- 

 long, brownish seeds. 



Medical Properties and Uses. The U. S. Dispensatory describes 

 St. John's Wort as having a peculiar balsamic odor, wliich is rendered 

 more sensible by rubbing or bruising the plant. Its taste is bitter, res- 

 inous, and somewhat astringent. It imparts a yellow color to cold 

 water, and reddens alcohol and the fixed oils. Its chief constituents 

 are volatile oil, a resinous substance, tannin, and coloring matter. As 

 a medicine it was in high repute among the ancients, and was much 

 employed by the earlier modern physicians. Among the complaints 

 for which it was used, were hysteria, mania, intermittent fever, dysen- 

 tery, gravel, hemorrhages, pectoral complaints, worms and jaundice ; 

 but it was most highly esteemed as a remedy in wounds and bruises, 

 for which it was employed both internally and externally. It is diffi- 

 cult to ascertain its exact value as a remedy ; but from its sensible 

 properties, and from the character of the complaints in which it has 

 been thought useful, it may be considered independently of its astrin- 

 gency, as somewhat analogous in medical power to the turpentines. It 

 formerly enjoyed great reputation for the cure of demoniacs, and the 

 superstition still lingers among the vulgar in some countries. At pres- 

 ent this plant is but very little used, except by the botanic physicians, 

 or as a domestic remedy, and its name is omitted in the Materia Med- 

 ica of the last edition of the Edinburgh Pharmacopojia, and in the 

 London Pharmacopoeia the flowers only are directed to be used, as 

 containing the greatest proportion of the resinous oily matter in wliich 

 the medical efficacy of the plant is supposed to reside. The dark 

 puncta of the petals and the capsules, afford this essential oil, which is 

 contained in minute vesicles or glands. 



