296 FAMILY HERBAL. 



was an excellent person at his business,, and with 

 them some seeds of the ammoniacum- plant, pick- 

 ed also out of a large quantity of thai; gum. Those 

 of the ammoniacum plant all perished ; from the 

 sagapenum seeds, though more than an hundred were 

 sown, we had only one plant, and that perished 

 by some accident very young ; but what we saw 

 of the leaves gave credit to the account given 

 of the plant by Mr. Wiiliams, who told us he 

 had seen it in Persia. These are curious parts 

 of knowledge, and they are worth prosecuting by 

 those who have leisure : the success of this experi- 

 ment shews the possibility of raising some of those 

 plants at home, winch we never have been able 

 to gel truly and fully described to us. 



We use a gum resin obtained from the roots 

 of this plant, by cutting them and catching the 

 juice ; we call tins, when concreted into lumps, 

 sagapenum. We have it either liner in small 

 pieces, or coarser in masses ; it is brownish, with 

 a cast of red, and will grow soft with the heat of 

 the hand : it is disagreeable both in smell and taste, 

 but it is an excellent medicine. It is good for all 

 disorders of the lungs arising from a tough phlegm, 

 and also in nervous cases. It has been found a 

 remedy in inveterate head-aches, after many other 

 medicines have failed. It is one of those drags, 

 too much neglected by the present practice, which 

 encourages the use of others that have not half 

 their virtue : but there are fashions in physic, as 

 there are in all other things. 



Red Sage. Salvia hortcnsls. 



The common sage of our gardens. It is a 

 kind of shrubby plant, a foot or two high, and 

 l-d! o! branches The stem is tough, hard, woody, 



