18S NAT. ORDER. — LILIACE.E. 



cultivated in various parts of Greece, both as ornaments, and 

 for medicinal purposes. 



Propagation and Culture. To raise these plants from seed, 

 great caution is necessary, that we select the best flowers — 

 such as have become fully grown, and well ripened, as some- 

 times the roots lose their fibres, and the stalks dry before 

 the seed is half ripe. This seed is generally ready for gather- 

 ing about the middle of July, or later, if the season proves 

 backward, which can be known by the di'vness of the stalks, 

 or opening of the seed-vessels. The whole plant should be 

 taken with the roots, letting the seed remain in the pods till 

 the first of October. It may then be taken out, and cleansed 

 from the chaflf, and s.">wn in beds of fine sifted earth, care being 

 taken that the seed is covered about half an inch in depth. 

 About the end of June, the second year after sowing, they 

 should be taken up, and the small roots cleansed, and set again 

 in rows, at a wider distance, and so continued every other year, 

 until they bear flowers, but altering the ground with fresh earth. 



Medical Froperties and Uses. The 7-oot is the jiart directed 

 i'or medicine ; and if we are to give credit to the writings of 

 the ancients, in regard to its effects, we shall describe it as 

 possessing extraordinary properties for the removal of all pul- 

 monary complaints. By the ancients, it was extensively used 

 in coughs, catarrhs, consumptions, and more particularly as a 

 generator of blood. The expressed juice of the plant was for- 

 merly used, in doses of from one to three fluidrachms, taken 

 every morning, and on going to bed. In this form it was given 

 by them, as a tonic, acting chiefly on the urinary organs, both 

 stimulating and exciting ; and was often administered for inflam- 

 mation of the k'dneys, bladder and spleen. 



