FAMILY HERBAL. 219 



marigold, picked from the cups, is good in fevers : it 

 gently promotes perspiration, and throws out any thing 

 that ought to appear on the skin. 



Mastic Tree. Lcntiseus. 



A native of the warmer countries, but not un- 

 common in our gardens. It grows to the bigness 

 of our apple trees, and is as irregular in the dispo- 

 sition of its branches. They are covered with a 

 greyish bark, and are brittle. The leaves are com- 

 posed, each of about four pairs of small ones, with- 

 out any odd leaf at the end : they are affixed to a. 

 kind of rib or pedicle, which has a film running 

 clown it, on each side. They are oblong, narrow, 

 and pointed at the ends. The flowers are little, and 

 yellowish ; and they grow in tufts. The fruit is a 

 bluish berry. 



We use the resin which drops from the wounded 

 branches of this tree. The tree itself is common 

 in France and Italy, but it yield? no resin there ; we 

 have that from Greece : It is whitish, hard, and in 

 little lumps. It is good for all nervous disorders, 

 and acts also as a balsam. There is scarce any 

 thing better for a spitting of blood, or in the first 

 stage of a consumption : it is also good against the 

 whites, and in the gleets after gonorrhoeas. Soma 

 have a custom of chewing it, to preserve the teeth 

 and sweeten the breath. 



Herb Mastic. Alarum. 



A pretty little plant, native only of the warmer 

 climates, but common in our gardens. It is a 

 foot high, and the stem and principal branches 

 are shrubby or woody in their texture : the small- 

 er shoots are whitish The leaves grow two at 



