FAMILY HERBAL. 149 



colour. The flowers are white and small, but they 

 grow in a large tuft at the top of the stalk. The 

 root is white, or a little reddish ; it is composed 

 of a great number of bulbs, or, as we call them, 

 cloves, joined together, and covered with a common 

 skin, and with fibres at the bottom. The whole- 

 plant has an extremely strong smell, and an acrid 

 and pungent taste. 



The root is to be boiled in water, and the decoc- 

 tion made into syrup with honey ; this is excellent 

 in asthmas, hoarseness, and coughs, and in all diffi- 

 culties of breathing. 



Gentian. Gentiana. 



A robust and handsome plant, native of Ger- 

 many, and kept with us in gardens. It grows 

 two feet and a half high. The leaves that rise 

 from the root, are oblong, broad, of a yellowish 

 green colour, and pointed at the ends. The stalk 

 is thick, firm, upright, and brownish or yellowish. 

 At every joint there stand two leaves like the others, 

 only smaller ; and towards the tops at every joint, 

 also, there stand a number of flowers : these are 

 small, yellow, with a great lump in the middle, 

 which is the rudiment of the seed-vessel, and a 

 great quantity of yellow threads about it. The 

 root is large, long, and often divided. It is of a 

 brownish colour on the outside, and yellow within, 

 and is of a very bitter taste. 



The root is used ; our druggists keep it dry : it 

 is the great bitter and stomachic of the modern 

 practice. Gentian root, and the peel of Seville 

 oranges, make the common bitter tinctures and in- 

 fusions : beside strengthening the stomach, and 

 creating an appetite, th^sse open obstructions, and 



