CLASS VI. ORDER IV. ] ACTINOCARPUS. 535 



while fresli, to be cut into thin slices, and carefully dried in a moderate 

 temperature, and when perfectly dry to be kept in bottles well closed, 

 from the atmosphere. It is from the want of care in selecting the 

 proper season for collecting the bulbs, and in the preparation and 

 preservation of them, that such contradictory reports are given of its 

 virtues : for the bulbs before or after maturity, when not perfected 

 by the leaves, or when the juices are impaired by the production of 

 flowers, are far from being so active, and unless carefully dried and 

 kept from the action of the atmosphere, the active principles are liable 

 to be destroyed. The seeds are far less liable to variation in their 

 activity, and are more easily preserved than the bulbs, and are, there- 

 fore, preferable for medical use. Their activity resides in the testa ; and 

 in the preparation of the spirituous tincture, which is the most elegant 

 form of administering them, they ought not to be bruised. 



The principal use to which Colchicum has been applied in this 

 country is in alleviating the pain and diminishing the paroxysms of 

 gout, over which and rheumatism it seems to possess almost a specific 

 controul. It has been found also useful in dropsical affections and 

 humeral asthma, seeming in these cases to act beneficially upon the 

 alimentary canal. 



ORDER IV. 



HEXAGYN'IA. G Pistils. 



GENUS XXVIII. ACTINO^CARPUS.— Brown. Slar-fmiL 



Nat, Ord. Alisma'ce^. R. Brown. 



Gen. Char. Calyx of six pieces. Petals three. Ovaries from six to 



eight. Capsules united at the base, and spreading in a star-like 



manner, each two seeded. — Name from a^nv, a ray ; and y.ap'Trogf 



B, fruit ; from the curious radiated disposition of the capsules. 



1. A. Damaso'niinn, Br. (Fig. 611.) Common Star-fruit. Capsules 



six, compressed, pointed, bursting longitudinally ; leaves oblong, five 



ribbed. 



Hooker, in Flora Lond. N. S,—Alisma Damasonium, Linn. — English 

 Botany, t. 1615.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 204.— Lindley, Synopsis, 

 p. 253. 



Root of numerous long pale branched fibres. Leaves all radical, 

 oblong, acute at the point, and obtuse or somewhat heart-shaped at the 

 base, with a stout mid-rib and four lateral veins near the margins, 

 floating on the surface of the water, eleyated on a many-ribbed foot- 



