348 HYDROCOTYLE. [class v. order I/. 



lands would lake warning, they would, especially in a warm moist 

 season, take their sheep out of the meadows where the pennywort grows, 

 and put them into dryer and more elevated pastures where it will 

 not grow, it will then he found that no disease of this kind will ap- 

 pear amongst the sheep. Indeed the cause of the disease will be found 

 a general one, and not depending upon the presence of any one plant 

 or a combination of plants, which have been accused of being alike 

 destructive to sheep, for the S itii-deivs (Drnsera longifolla and rotun- 

 difnlia) are in the same predicament as this plant. But from repeated 

 observations and trials made with sheep, we are convinced that it is 

 the general nature of the food and the wet season, together with 

 the humid soil saturated with stagnant moisture, that are the means of 

 the disease being developed ; and if the sheep are removed from these 

 to dryer pastures and dryer and more substantial food, it will be found 

 sufficient to prevent the appearance of the disease amongst them, and 

 a great means of mitigating its violence when it has made its ap- 

 pearance. 



The Fluke, or flounder insect, {Fasciola hepatica), found in the 

 biliary ducts of the liver of sheep and other animals, is a very remark- 

 able animal, (Fig. 524), flat, ovate, pointed at one end, and numerously 

 branched over with veins, having very much the appearance of a leaf; 

 at the broad extremity there is a narrow prolongation, on which are two 

 suckers, by these they attach themselves to the sides of the ducts of 

 the liver, and appear to live upon the secreted biliary matter, and 

 when there are only a few present they do not seem to cause any injury 

 to the animal; but as they become more numerous, the sheep, from 

 the want of the proper supply of stimulus to the digestive organs, 

 become unhealthy, the liver disorganised, and at length destroyed, from 

 the disease produced. 



Pennywort was formerly admitted into the list of some of the phar- 

 raacopa;ias, from the acrid properties that it is said to possess ; l)Ut we 

 are not aware that it is now used for any particular purpose. H. 

 Asiatica is, we are told, used in India as a culinary vegetable, and 

 also as a diuretic ; and some other species are said to possess like 

 properties, but none are very active, or of much value. 



Tribe 2. SA^'ICULE.^i. Fruit nearly round. Carpel with five equal 

 primary rid(fcs, the secondary wanting, or all the ridges are 

 obliterated by scales or prickles. Albumen on a transverse sec- 

 tion, nearly round, plain in front. Petals erect, a little broken on 

 the margin in the middle. Umbel simple, or irregularly sub- 

 compound, or in a head. 



