122 



A R I 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



A R N 



flexuose, round ; flowers solitary, blue or purplish ; root a 

 congeries of small fibres, of a yellow colour, and aromatic 

 smell and taste. It is a warm diaphoretic and diuretic ; it is 

 reckoned one of the principal alexipharmics, and is in general 

 use in low malignant fevers, and epidemic diseases. It is 

 given in substance from a few grains to a scruple or half a 

 drachm ; in decoction or infusion, to a drachm or upwards. 

 A tincture of it is prepared by digesting three ounces in a 

 quart of spirit of wine eight days; and a spiri-alexiterial wa- 

 ter, mixed with one-sixth its quantity of distilled water. It 

 is also an ingredient in the compound tincture of bark. 

 Native of Virginia and Carolina. 



18. Aristolochia Pistolochia. Leaves cordate-crenulate, 

 netted underneath, petioled; stems angular, branching, 

 weak ; flowers solitary ; roots round, numerous. Native 

 of the south of France, Switzerland, and Spain. 



19. Aristolochia Rotunda; Round-rooted Birthwort.' 

 Leaves cordate, subsessile, obtuse ; stem weak ; flowers so- 

 litary, of a purplish black colour. This has long tap-roots, 

 shaped like those of Carrots. It is a native of the south of 

 Europe, and of Japan, and flowers at the same time in both, 

 from June through the autumn. The root, which is the only 

 part used, is a rough and disagreeable medicine ; it often 

 offends the stomach, but is an excellent drug for promoting 

 the necessary evacuations after delivery. There are two kinds 

 of Birthwort roots kept in the shops ; the one called the Long 

 Birthwort, the other the Climbing Birthwort. They possess 

 the same virtues with the Round, but in a less degree, and 

 are therefore less regarded : see species 20 and 22. 



20. Aristolochia Longa ; Long-rooted Birthwort. Leaves 

 cordate, petioled, obtuse ; stem weak ; flowers pale purple, 

 solitary ; fruit ovate. Native of the south of Europe, and 

 Japan. Meyrick informs us, tht it will sometimes resist 

 the severity of an English winter in the open air, and that it 

 flowers with us at the latter end of summer. He adds, the 

 roots are kept in the shops, and many authors represent them 

 as being of an extremely hot and pungent nature ; but such 

 as are commonly met with among druggists, exhibit no very 

 striking qualities of that kind. On first chewing them when 

 dry, scarcely any taste is perceptible ; but they soon fill the 

 mouth with a nauseous bitterness, which remains for a long 

 time. As a medicine, they heat, stimulate, cut and attenuate 

 a tough phlegm, and promote the fluid secretions in general ; 

 but their principal efficacy consists in removing feminine 

 obstructions, and promoting the necessary evacuations after 

 delivery; from which it is probable the plant received its name. 

 The dose is from a scniple in weight to upwards of a drachm. 

 A decoction of them is recommended to be used externally 

 as a fomentation, for cleansing and healing wounds and ulcers, 

 and in cutaneous disorders. They have likewise been recom- 

 mended as powerful alterants in gouty complaints ; but who- 

 ever has been attentive to their effects must have observed, 

 that in some cases they are improper : see the 22d species. 

 Simon Pauli informs us, that the Long Birthwort roots, 

 applied as an epithem or fomentation, were found remark- 

 ably serviceable in stubborn ulcers of the legs. 



21. Aristolochia Hirsuta ; Rough Birthwort. Leaves 

 cordate, rather obtuse, shaggy ; flowers solitary, pendulous, 

 recurved, subtruncate. The whole plant is bitter, the flower 

 scentless : it has been recommended for the gout. Native 

 of the island of Schio or Chios. 



22. Aristolochia Clematitis ; Common Birthwort. Leaves 

 cordate; stem erect; flowers axillary, crowded, pale yellow. 

 It has an erect stem, from two to three feet high, simple 

 striated, round, and smooth ; and is found all over the con- 

 tinent of Europe. In England, in a wood two miles from 



Thorndon in Essex ; near Maidstone and other places in 

 Kent ; near Stuston in Suffolk ; and in the hedges at Whit-, 

 tlesford in Cambridgeshire. The roots have an aromatic- 

 smell, and a warm bitterish taste ; they are celebrated as warm 

 attenuants and deobstruents, particularly in suppressions of 

 the uterine purgations. The dose is from a scruple to a 

 drachm and upwards. Boerhaave observes, that the pituitous 

 gout, as he calls it, is often relieved by an infusion of these 

 roots in spirit of Juniper berries, sweetened with sugar, and 

 taken to the quantity of a spoonful at a time ; but that in other 

 kinds of gout, and in subjects of a tender constitution, this 

 medicine produces loss of appetite, a weakness of the sto- 

 mach, and a languidness more distressing than the gout 

 itself: a powder composed of this and other similar materials, 

 (prescribed by the ancients as an antiarthritic, and again come 

 into esteem,) has produced complaints of the same kind. 



23. Aristolochia Scandens. Leaves cordate, on very long 

 petioles; stem climbing; flowers terminal,on verylongpedun- 

 cles.^-This species grows naturally near Tolu in New Spaii.. 



24. Aristolochia Conferta. Leaves cordate, petioled ; stem 

 climbing ; flowers axillary, crowded, dark purple. Disco- 

 vered at Campeachy in New Spain. 



25. Aristolochia Bracteata. Leaves cordate, obtuse ; stem 

 weak ; flowers solitary ; bractes cordate, petioled. Native 

 of the East Indies, where it is used as a medicine. 



26. Aristolochia Obtusata. Leaves cordate, rounded at 

 the tip, three-nerved, netted and tomentose beneath ; stem 

 twining; peduncle solitary. Native of the Caribbee Islands. 



27. Aristolochia Grandiflora. Leaves broad, cordate ; 

 stem twining, subherbaceous ; peduncles solitary ; tip of the 

 corolla very large, with a very long tail. It bears very large 

 flowers, seldom under five or six inches round the margin : 

 very common in St. Ann's, Jamaica. 



Jlristotelia ; a genus of the class Dodecandria, order Mo- 

 nogynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calic : perianth one- 

 leafed, five parted ; divisions lanceolate, concave, acute, 

 upright. Corolla : petals five, wedge-shaped, concave, erect, 

 lying over each other at the sides, scarcely longer than the 

 calix. Stamina: filamenta fifteen, very short; anthera linear, 

 shorter than the germen. Pistil : germen superior, roundish, 

 rather three-cornered ; style filiform, longer than the corolla; 

 stigmas three, recurved. Pericarp : berry subglobular, ob- 

 tusely three-cornered, three-celled. Seeds : two, or solitary 

 in each cell, angular. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : five- 

 leaved. Corolla: five-petalled. Berry: three-celled. Seeds: 

 two in each cell. One species only is known, 



1. Aristotelia Macqui : Shining-leaved jlristotelia. A 

 small shrub, native of Chili, where the inhabitants make a 

 wine from the berries, which are slightly acid, and eatable, 

 and given in malignant fevers. Dombey, while in Chili, used 

 it successfully against the plague. It flowers in April and 

 May, and is hardy enough to bear the open air in general ; 

 though severe winters will probably kill it, unless protected 

 by a green-house. 



Arnica ; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Polygamia 

 Superflua. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : common, im- 

 bricate, shorter than the ray of the corolla ; leaflets lanceo- 

 late, the length of the calix, erect. Corolla : compound, ra- 

 diate. Corollules : hermaphrodite in the disk, very numerous. 

 Females in the ray, about twenty. Proper of the hermaph- 

 rodite, tubular, erect, five-cleft, equal. Female lanceolate, 

 very long, three-toothed, spreading. Stamina : to the her- 

 maphrodites, filamenta very short : anthera cylindric : to the 

 females, filamenta subulate, erect; anthera none. Pistil: 

 germen oblong ; style simple, the length of the stamina ; 

 stigma bifid. Pericarp : none. Calix : unchanged. Seedt . 



