ARGEM'ONE MEXICA'NA. 



MEXICAN ARGEMONE. 

 Class. Order. 



POLYANDRIA. MONOGYIUA. 



Natural Order. 



PAPAVERACE^. 



No. 85. 



The name of this genus, Argemone, has been 

 handed down to us from the ancient Greek botanists. 

 They adopted it after the term ARGEMA, a disease 

 of the eyes ; wherein white spots arise on the cor- 

 nea, which their argemone was said to be efficacious 

 in removing. 



Gerarde says, * The golden Thistle of Peru, call- 

 ed in the West Indies, Fique del Inferno, (Infernal 

 Fig,) a friend of mine brought it unto me from an 

 island there, called Saint John's Island, among 

 other seeds. What reason the inhabitants there 

 have to call it so, is unto me unknown, unless it be 

 because of his fruit, which doth much resemble a fig 

 in shape and bigness, but so full of sharp and veno- 

 mous prickles, that whosoever had one of them in his 

 throat, doubtless it would send him packing either 

 to heaven or hell.' 



Those of our readers who happen to possess 

 Johnson's edition of Gerarde 's Herbal, should be 

 informed, that the principal description of the above 

 plant is contained in that work, at page 1155; but 

 the wood-cut figure of it is at page 371, and is mis- 

 numbered 401. 



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