02 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Suffolk ; Carrow, Norfolk ; and Goclstowc Nunnery, Oxford. Yorkshire 

 seems to be tlie most northern locality where it has been noticed. 



[England.] Perennial. Summer. 



Rootstock woody, scarcely as thick as the little finger. Stems stout, 

 18 inches to 2 feet high. Leaves 3 to 6 inches broad, and about the 

 iame length, very dee[)ly cordate, the basal lobes projecting laterally 

 inwards till they nearly touch each other. Flowers in fascicles of 4 to 

 8. Perianth about one inch long or a little more, pale greenish yellow. 

 Fruit ovoid. Fruit pedicel recurved. Leaves pale green, somewhat 

 glaucous beneath ; plant glabrous. 



Common Birthwort. 

 French, Anstoloche clematite. German, Gemeine Osterluzei. 

 Tlie name of this plant and its supposed remedial powers are the suggestions of the 

 doctrine of signatures, by the shape of the corolla. The root is aromatic and hitter, 

 but not ungrateful to the palate. It has been used in the Portland powder for the 

 cure of gout, but not without producing .effects more formidable than the original 

 disease. The ancients attributed great virtues to it. Gerard tells us that it is a 

 singular and much-used antidote against the bite of the Rattlesnake, or rather Adder 

 or Viper, whose bite is very deadly, and therefore, by the providence of the Creator, 

 •' hee hath upon his taile a skinny dry substance, parted into eels, which contain some 

 loose, hard, dry bodies that rattle in them (as if one should put little stones or pease 

 into a stiffe and very dry bladder), that so he may by this noise give warning of his 

 approach, the better to be avoided ; but if any be bitten, they know not stand in need 

 of no better antidote than this root, which they chew and apply to the wound, and 

 also swallow some of it downe, by which means they quickly overcome the malignitie 

 of this poisonous bite, which otherwise would in a very short time prove deadly. 

 Many also commend the use of this against the plague, smallpox, measles, and such 

 like maligne and contagious diseases." An opinion is said to prevail in France that 

 the produce of vineyards in which this plant abounds becomes deteriorated in quality. 



ORDER LXVTL— EMPETRACEiE. 



Small evergreen heathlike diffusely branched shrubs. Leaves 

 crowded, alternate or subverticillate, linear-acerose, entire. Stipules 

 none. Flowers dioecious, rarely j^erfect or polygamous, small, solitary 

 or in small clusters in the axils of the leaves, very rarely in. terminal 

 clusters. Perianth double, subscarious, in 2 rows with 3 segments in 

 each row, rarely with only 2. Stamens 3 in the male flowers, rarely 2 ; 

 in the female absent or merely rudimentary, hypogynous; anthers 

 2-celled, opening longitudinally. Ovary rudimentary in the male 

 flowers, in the female solitary, free from the perianth, seated on a 

 disk, 3-, 6-, or 9-celled, rarely 2-celled; ovules solitary in each cell. 



