RUTACEyE. II. RUTA. 



779 



was much used by the ancients, who ascribed to it many excel- 

 lent qualities. Hippocrates commends it as a resolvent and 

 diuretic, and attributes to it the power of resisting contagion, 

 and the action of other kinds of poisons ; so that it was em- 

 ployed with this intention by Mithridates (see PL nat. hist. 1. 

 28. c. 8.) : this quality, though allowed by Boerhaave, is now 

 generally discredited (Cullen. mat.med. 2. p. 365.). According 

 to Bergius it is " alexiteria, pellens, emmenagoga, sudorifera, 

 rubefaciens." It is, however, acknowledged to be a powerful 

 astringent, and like other medicines of a foetid kind, to possess 

 attenuating, deobstruent, and anti-spasmodic powers, and to be 

 peculiarly adapted to phlegmatic habits, or weak and hysterical 

 constitutions, suffering from retarded or obstructed secretions. 

 It is employed by some as a tea, and also externally in discutient 

 and antiseptic fomentations. Among the common people the 

 leaves are sometimes taken with treacle, on an empty stomach, 

 as anthelmintic. A conserve, made by beating the fresh leaves 

 with thrice their weight of fine sugar, is the most commodious 

 form for using the herb in substance. The dose of the pow- 

 dered leaves may be 15 to 20 grs. given twice or thrice a day. 

 The officinal preparations " oleum rutce and extraclum rutce gra- 

 veolens" or oil of rue, is procured in the quantity of 59 grains 

 of oil from 21 pounds of rue, which oil has the strong ungrateful 

 odour and taste of the plant. When recently drawn, the colour 

 is yellow, but by age it deepens to a brown, and deposits a 

 brownish resinous sediment. It congeals at 40 Fahrenheit. 

 This oil is stimulant, and antispasmodic ; it is sometimes given 

 in hysteria, and the convulsive affections of infants attendant on 

 dentition, and is sometimes used as a rubefacient in palsy. The 

 extract of rue is prepared like other simple extracts : it is ino- 

 dorous, but has a bitter acrid taste. The medicinal properties 

 are different from those of the plant, the stimulant and narcotic 

 powers of which depend on the volatile oil it contains, which is 

 dissipated during the instipation of the extract. The dose is 

 from 10 to 15 grs. in pills. Lewis, Woodville, and Thomson. 



" Rue was anciently also named herb grace or herb of grace, 

 and it is to this day called ave-grace in Sussex, in allusion doubt- 

 less to Ave-Maria, gratia plena ; and it is remarkable that 

 Mary, in Hebrew, signifies bitter. Warburton says that rue 

 had its name herb of grace from its having been used in exor- 

 cisms. When Ophelia, in Shakspeare's Hamlet, says to the 

 Queen " There's rue for you and here's some for me ; we may 

 call it herb of grace o' Sundays :" the fair moralist has no refer- 

 ence to this plant being used in exorcisms, performed in churches 

 on Sundays ; but means only, that the Queen may with peculiar 

 propriety on Sundays, when she solicits pardon for that crime 

 which she has so much occasion to rue and repent of, call her 

 rue herb of grace. It was, indeed, the common name for rue 

 in Shakspeare's time ; and Greene, in his Quip for an upstart 

 Courtier, has this passage : " some of them smiled and said rue 

 was called hcrbegrace, which though they scorned in their youth, 

 they might wear in their age, and that it was never too late to 

 say miserere." The gardener in Richard II. says of the Queen : 



" Here did she drop a tear ; here in this place, 

 I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace : 

 Rue even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen 

 In the remembrance of a weeping queen." 



Here the gardener plays upon the name, and might mislead an 

 etymologist who knew no better. He might, with more truth, 

 have called rue bitter than sour, and he whimsically enough 

 makes it take the place of rosemary, which was the emblem of 

 remembrance, as rue was of grace. Thus Perdita, in the Win- 

 ter's Tale : 



" Reverend sirs, 

 For you there's rosemary and rue, these keep 



Seeming and favour all the winter long : 

 Grace and remembrance be to you both." 



They are both evergreens, retaining their appearance and taste 

 during the whole year, and therefore are proper emblems of re- 

 membrance and grace. 



Rue seems to have been used formerly in nosegays ; for the 

 Clown in All's Well that End's Well, having said of the Countess, 

 " she was the sweet-marjoram of the salad, or rather the herb 

 of grace." Lafeu replies, " they are not salad-herbs, you 

 knave, they are nose-herbs ;" upon which the Clown, in cha- 

 racter, remarks, " I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, sir, I have 

 not much skill in grass :" thus punning upon the name of grace, 

 as the gardener did upon the other name of rue. (Martyn). 



Linnaeus having observed that the rue moved one of its sta- 

 mens every day to the pistil, Sir James Smith examined the 

 Riita angustifdlia, and found many of the stamens in the posi- 

 tion which he describes, holding their anthers over the stigma ; 

 while those which had not come to the stigma were lying back 

 upon the petals, as well as those which had already performed 

 their office, had returned to their original situation. Trying 

 with a quill to stimulate the stamens, he found them all quite 

 devoid of irritability ; they are strong, stout, conical bodies, and 

 cannot, without breaking, be forced out of the position in which 

 they happen to be. The same phenomenon has been observed 

 in several other flowers, but it is no where more striking, or 

 more easily examined than in the species of rue. Hence Sir 

 James Smith concludes, that these plants are endued with a kind 

 of spontaneous motion. This is not a very philosophical con- 

 clusion. To a similar cause we are taught to assign the same 

 cause ; and because we cannot excite the irritability, it does not 

 therefore follow that the subject is not irritable. 



Strong-scented or Common Rue. Fl. June, Sept. Clt. 1562. 

 Shrub 3 feet. 



7 R. D'IVARICA'TA (Tenor, cat. hort. neap. 1819. p. 42. but 

 not of Saltzm.) leaves supra-decompound ; leaflets obovately 

 cuneated, equal; petals entire or a little toothed, (j . H. Na- 

 tive of the south of Italy, also of Greece and Tauria, among 

 rocks exposed to the sun. Tenor, fl. nap. 1. t. 36. An inter- 

 mediate plant between R. graveolens and R. anguslifolia. 

 Lam. ill. t. 345. f. 1. 



Divaricate Rue. Fl. May, Sept. Clt. 1820. Shrub 3 feet. 



8 R. CRITHMIFOLIA (Moric. ined. D. C. prod. 1. p. 710.) 

 leaves supra-decompound ; leaflets oblong-linear, rather cu- 

 neated, about equal ; petals entire or a little toothetl. fy . H. 

 Native of Germany between Duino and Trieste, as well as of 

 the Levant, on rocks. 



Samphire-leaved Rue. Shrub 2 feet. 



9 R. CORSICA (D. C. prod. 1. p. 710.) leaves supra-decom- 

 pound ; leaflets obovate, almost equal ; racemes almost simple ; 

 pedicels elongated, 1-flowered, stiffly divaricating ; petals entire. 

 \l . F. Native of Corsica, on the mountains. R. montana, spi- 

 nosa alba, Bocc. mus. p. 70. t. 59. R. divaricata, Saltzm. in 

 flora. 1821. p. 109. Corymbs bifid from the base ; branches 

 racemose. The old branches, if Bocconi's figure is to be de- 

 pended upon, are spiny. Flowers yellow, but according to Bocc. 

 they are white. Perhaps two distinct plants are here confused. 



Corsican Rue. Fl. June, Sept. Clt. 1818. Shrub 2 feet. 



10 R. ALBIFLORA (Hook. exot. fl. 79 ) leaves supra-decom- 

 pound ; leaflets obovate, glaucous, pubescent, somewhat auricled, 

 terminal one large, obcordate ; branches of panicle bracteate ; 

 petals entire, shorter than the stamens ; ovary on a pedicel. 

 Tj . G. Native of Nipaul. R. Dampatis, Hamilt. mss. Flowers 

 white. An elegant plant, clothed with glandular pubescence. 



White-flowered Rue. Fl. July, Sept. Clt. 1823. Sh. 2 ft. 

 Cult. All the species of rue are of easy cultivation. They 

 5 e2 



