56 



A C N 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL ; 



A C O 



ranthes. Stem decumbent, four-cornered ; leaves ovate- 

 cordate ; spikes lax, short. The stems are frequently 

 eighteen inches high. It is a native of Arabia. 



Ada ; a genus of the class Monadelphia, order Dodecan- 

 dria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth one-leafed, 

 turbinate, curved ; border five-parted ; parts roundish, 

 spreading ; the uppermost and two lowest larger ; the two 

 middle ones smaller. Corolla ; petals five, oblong, rounded ; 

 the three upper longer, ascending ; the two lower shorter. 

 Stamina : filamenta twelve, unequal, uniting at the bottom 

 in a linear fleshy membrane, inserted into the calix between 

 the two smaller petals ; antherae roundish, small. Pistil : 

 germen ovate, above the base adhering by the membrane of 

 the stamina, to a rib internally prominent from the bottom 

 of the calix: style filiform, curved ; stigma acute. Pericarp: 

 drupe ovate, fibrous, chincked, large. Seed : nut, ovate, 

 with a brittle shell. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: five- 

 parted. Corolla : five petalled, unequal. Drupe ; full of 

 chinks. The only known sppr ics is, 



1. Apia Gnianensis ; the Guiana ACM. A tree with a 

 trunk sixty feet in height, and three or four feet in diame- 

 ter, covered with a smooth gray bark. The fruit is of the 

 size of a walnut, covered with a thick, woody, fibrous, cori- 

 aceous skin, of a brown colour, cracking irregularly, and 

 adhering to the stone, which is thin, and easily breaks. It 

 encloses a large kernel of an irregular form, dividing into 

 two parts. The Creoles at Cayenne eat it when brought to 

 market in August ; they reckon it good fruit, and extract 

 an oil as sweet as that of almonds from it : they call the 

 tree Coupi. The wood is hard and heavy, of a white colour 

 inclining to yellow. 



Acidoton ; a genus of the class Moncecia, order Polyandria. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Maleflowers. Calix: perianth five- 

 leaved ; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, reflex. Corolla : none. 

 Stamina : filamenta numerous, thirty-five to forty, placed 

 on a globular receptacle ; the outer shorter, the inner 

 longer ; antherae cordate-ovate, upright, small. Females on 

 the same or a different tree. Calix : perianth six-leaved : leaf- 

 lets linear-lanceolate, spreading. Corolla : none. Pistil : 

 germen three-cornered ; style short, acute, thick, trifid at the 

 top ; stigmas tomentose, reflex. Pericarp : capsule three- 

 grained, hirsute, three-celled. Seeds : solitary, ovate. ES- 

 SENTIAL CHARACTER. Male. Calix : five-leaved. Corolla : 

 none. Stamina : fixed to a globular receptacle. Female. 

 Calix : six-leaved. Corolla : none. Style : trifid. Cap- 

 sule : three-grained. The only known species is, 



1. Acidoton Urens. It is eight or nine feet high ; trunk 

 round, straight, and woody, the size of the little finger, 

 covered with a smooth brownish bark. This plant, des- 

 cribed by Sloane, seems to. have been young, as he never 

 saw either flower or fruit. A native of Jamaica. 



Acnida ; a genus of the class Dioecia, order Pentandria. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Male. Calix : perianth five-leaved ; 

 leaflets ovate, concave, acute, membranaceous on the edge. 

 Corolla: none. Stamina: filamenta five, capillary, very 

 short ; antheraa versatile, bilocular, forked each way. Female. 

 Calix : involucre many-leaved, linear, deciduous ; perianth 

 two-leaved, linear, very small, permanent. Corolla : none. 

 Pistil: germen superior, ovate ; styles five, long, reflex, pubes- 

 cent ; stigmas simple. Pericarp : fruit ovate, compressed, 

 many-angled, furrowed, covered with a succulent calix. 

 Seeds: solitary, round, compressed. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Male. Calix : five-leaved. Corolla : none. Female. Calix : 

 two-leaved. Corolla: none. Styles: five. Seed : one, cover- 

 ed with the succulent calix. The only known species is, 



1. Acnida Cannabina j Virginian Hemp. This plant grows 



naturally in Virginia, and in some other parts of North Ame- 

 rica, but is rarely cultivated in Europe, except in some few 

 botanic gardens. It is near of kin to Hemp, but there is 

 little beauty in it, and hitherto no use has been made of it. 

 Aconite, Winter. See Helleborus. 



Aconitum ; a genus of the class Polyandria, order Trigynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: none. Corolla: petals five, 

 unequal, opposite, in pairs. 1. The highest helmet-tubed, 

 inverted, the back upwards, obtuse ; the top reflected to the 

 base, acuminate, to which top the connecting base is oppo- 

 site. 2, 3. The two lateral ones broad, roundish, opposite, 

 converging. 4, 5. The two lowest oblong, pointing down- 

 wards. Nectaries two, concealed under the first petal, fistu- 

 lous, nodding ; mouth oblique ; tail recurved; sitting on long 

 subulate peduncles ; six little very short coloured scales, in 

 the same circle as the nectaries. Stamina : filamenta subulate, 

 very small, broader at the base, inclining towards the first 

 petal ; antherae erect, small. Pistil.- germina three, (five) 

 oblong, ending in styles the length of the stamina ; stigmas 

 simple, reflex. Pericarp : capsules as many as the styles, 

 ovate-subulate, straight, one-valved, gaping inward. Seeds: 

 very many, angular, wrinkled. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Calix : none. Petals : five, the highest arched, shaped like a 

 hood or helmet. Nectaries : two. Peduncle recurved ; Cap- 

 sules : three or five. All the species of this genus may be pro- 

 pagated by seeds, which, if sown in a shady situation during 

 autumn, will appear in the following spring. The ground 

 must be kept free from weeds, and the plants watered in dry 

 weather, for the first year, when they may be transplanted 

 to where they are intended to remain ; all the attention they 

 will there require, is, to cut down the stalks in autumn, after 

 they have done flowering. They are all hardy perennials, 

 require little care or culture, and, having most handsome 

 spikes of spacious flowers, are very desirable plants for 



shrubberies and wilderness quarters. The species are, 



* With three Capsules 



1. Aconitum Lycoctonum ; Great Yellow Monk's Hood. 

 or Wolfs bane. Leaves palmate, multifid, villose. The 

 stem is eighteen inches high or more, very little branched, 

 and leafy. It is reckoned among the earliest spring flowers 

 of Sweden ; where a decoction of the powder of the root 

 is used for destroying flies and other insects. Linneus says, 

 it is eaten in Medelpadia, a province of Sweden, without 

 injury. It seems, indeed, to be milder than some of the 

 other species, and hence goats and horses are said to eat 

 it. It was cultivated here by Gerarde, in 1596. The 

 mountains of Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Carniola, 

 Italy, and Siberia, produce it in a wild state. 



2. Aconitum Japonicum ; Japanese Monk's Hood. Leaves 

 trifid, palmate ; divisions gashed, blunt. The stem is 

 round and smooth, and the spike of flowers short. It is a 

 native of Japan, and is there called Soo Huso. 



3. Aconitum Napellus ; Common Monk's Hood, or Wolfs- 

 bane. Divisions of the leaves linear, broader above, and 

 scored with a line. The species has the root simple, woody, 

 tuberous, unequal ; stem erect, firm, covered with leaves 

 eighteen inches high. This plant is allowed on all hands 

 to be a most deadly poison, a criminal having been put to 

 death by taking one drachm of the root. It has nevcr- 

 ;heless been so subdued as to become a powerful remedy 

 n some of the most troublesome disorders incident to the 

 mman frame. Baron Stoerck began by administering it in 



violent pains of the side and joints, in glandulous schirrhi, 



tumors, ulcerous tubercles of the breast, &c. to the quantity 



if from ten to thirty grains in a dose, of an extract made with 



the juice of this plant by a gentle evaporation, and then 



