CAR 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



CAR 



247 



leaflets vary much in shape. The young leaves are a good 

 salad in the spring. It is a native of most parts of Europe, 

 iu wet shady places, and flowers in April or May. 



13. Cardamine Pratensis ; Common Ladies' Smock, or 

 Cuckoo Flower. Leaves pinnate ; the radical leaflets round- 

 ish, those on the stem lanceolate. Root perennial; stem nine 

 inches or a foot high, upright, at top a little branched, 

 round, scarce perceptibly angular, smooth, stiffish, with a 

 purple tinge at bottom ; radical leaves on petioles from an 

 inch to two inches in length, having three or four pairs of 

 leaflets, frequently imperfect, after the stem is advanced ; 

 the pinnas roundish, running out into three unequal angles 

 or teeth, the outermost largest, and having for the most part 

 five angles ; calix yellowish green ; corolla large, purplish or 

 white ; laminaovate, emarginate, deeply veined ; claws yellow- 

 ish ; nectary of four glands, two surrounding the base of the 

 short filamenta, and two on the outside of the base of the 

 long filamenta. Most authors speak of the corolla as being 

 purple ; it is singular, therefore, that our poets should allude 

 to the silvery whiteness of it, when it is generally more or 

 less tinged with purple till it has been bleached by the sun. 

 It is very common in moist meadows, and by the sides of 

 ditches and streams, flowering in April and May. From its 

 early appearance, the name of Cuckoo-flower has been given 

 to it, as well as to other spring plants. The young leaves of 

 tliis species, as well as several others, are gathered in the 

 spring, and put into salads, instead of cress, of which they 

 have the flavour, and the antiscorbutic quality. Cows sel- 

 dom touch it ; but sheep will eat it, at least when they are 

 first turned into a meadow or marsh. The medical virtues 

 of the flowers, in hysteric and epileptic cases, was first men- 

 tioned by Ray and Dale, from Dr. Tancred Robinson ; and 

 since by Dr. Baker. The dose is from twenty to ninety 

 grains twice a day, of the powder of the dried flowers. Wi- 

 thering asks, if they do not act like the Erysimum Cheiran- 

 thoides in the epilepsies of children, and cure the disease by 

 destroying the worms in the stomach and intestines ? He 

 adds : I have accounts, upon good authority, of their success 

 in young epileptics, but have never been fortunate enough to 

 see them of much use in hysteric cases. From the disuse into 

 which this medicine has fallen, it would seem to have dis- 

 appointed the expectations of practitioners. Cases have, 

 however, occurred to some very eminent physicians, in which 

 epilepsies and obstinate head-aches, even in old people, after 

 resisting every other remedy, have been cured by this medi- 

 cine, given in the quantity above prescribed, twice or thrice 

 daily. It usually operates by occasioning a degree of hemor- 

 rhage per antim, and sometimes from the other emunctories. 

 It seems particularly serviceable in those kinds of epilepsies 

 which are brought on by the recess or want of the menses; and 

 has also been considered as useful in scorbutic cases, like many 

 other plants of the same natural order. Meyrick prescribes 

 the expressed juice of the leaves, which he says operates 

 powerfully by urine, and is good in the jaundice, and all 

 other complaints arising from obstructions of any of the vis- 

 oera, and in scorbutic disorders. A wine glass, is a sufficient 

 quantity to be taken at a time. He adds, the flowers, care- 

 fully dried, are very efficacious in nervous disorders, such as 

 convulsions, the falling sickness, palsy, and hysteric fits. 

 The dose is from a scruple to half a drachm, twice a day. 

 The double varieties of this species, which have white and 

 purple flowers, deserve a place in the shady moist borders of 

 the flower-garden, where they will thrive, and make a pretty 

 appearance during their continuance in flower. They are 

 propagated by parting their roots in autumn ; at which time 

 they should be annually transplanted. 



14. Cardamine Amara ; Bitter Cress, or Ladies' Smock. 

 Leaves winged ; root leaflets roundish ; stem leaves angularly 

 toothed ; stem taking root at the base; root perennial, toothed; 

 leaves nearly smooth ; flowers large,white, or cream-coloured , 

 antherae violet-coloured. The young leaves are acrid and 

 bitterish, but do not taste amiss in salads ; they are pungent, 

 bitter, and aromatic, in such a degree as to promise very 

 considerable medicinal uses. This plant is a native of Swe- 

 den, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Piedmont. It is 

 found near London, at Chelsea, Battersea, Lewisham, Ux- 

 bridge, Harefield ; Dorking in Surry ; Braintree iu Essex ; 

 Middleton in Warwickshire ; Aston near Birmingham; above 

 Worcester ; and Great Comberton in Worcestershire ; near 

 Norwich ; Bungay, Suffolk ; and in Scotland. It grows near 

 rivulets, on the banks of rivers, in boggy places, and moist 

 meadows ; flowering in April and May. Perennial. 



15. Cardamine Virginica; Virginian Cress. Leaves pin- 

 nate ; leaflets lanceolate, one -toothed at the base ; radical 

 leaves in a circle, pinnate ; leaflets numerous, almost imbri- 

 cate, sublanceolate, with one short toothlet from the hinder 

 side near the base ; stem with few leaves, generally linear 

 and entire. Native of Virginia. 



16. Cardamine Thalictroides. Leaves ternate, pinnate 

 and simple ; leaflets obliquely lobed, roundish; petals thrice 

 the length of the calix. Stem striated, branching,- procum- 

 bent, the extreme branches bearing flowers on a short um- 

 bel ; leaves tender, juicy, not hirsute, pinnate ; the radical 

 ones have often two pinnas : biennial. Native of Mont 

 Cenis, St. Bernard, and the Grand Chartreuse. 



17. Cardamine Stolonifera. Stem leaves oblong, sinuate- 

 toothed ; runners from the root and base of the stem. Stem 

 six inches high, erect, branching, moderately hirsute ; radi- 

 cal leaves on long petioles, obtuse, repand, with one pinnule 

 beneath, a line in length ; leaves of the runners small, peti- 

 oled, sharpish with acuminate angles behind. Native of 

 Carniola, Austria, and the borders of Bohemia, 



18. Cardamine Scutata. Leaves ternate, scutate, curled j 

 stem almost naked. Root Jibrous : fibres very close, ca- 

 pillary ; scapes naked, a finger's length ; root-leaves very 

 many, petioled, ternate, erect, loose ; lower stem-leaves 

 often solitary, sometimes opposite, in pairs, ovate, sub- 

 petioled, very small ; the terminating one round, curled, 

 smooth, dotted. Native of Japan. 



Cardamom. See Amomum. 



Cardinal Flower. See Lobelia. 



Cardinspermum ; a genus of the class Octandria, order 

 Trigynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth four- 

 leaved ; leaflets obtuse, concave, the alternative interior ones 

 the size of the corolla, permanent. Corolla : petals four, ob- 

 tuse, alternate with the larger leaflets of the calix ; nectary 

 four-petalled, coloured, inclosing the germen ; leaflets obtuse, 

 growing upon the petals, two upon the erect lip, callous at 

 the tip, hooked at the side ; the rest upon the closed lip, w ith 

 equal sides. Stamina: filamenta eight, subulate, equal with 

 the nectary ; anthers; small. Pistil : germen three-sided ; 

 styles three, short ; stigmas simple. Pericarp : capsule 

 roundish, trilobate, inflated, trilocular, gaping at the tip. 

 Seed: solitary, globular, marked at the base with a cordate 

 scar. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: four-leaved. Pe- 

 tals : four. Nectary : four-leaved, unequal. Capsule : 

 three, connate, inflated. In both Indies, of which these 

 plants are natives, they climb upon whatever shrubs are 

 near them, and rise to the height of eight or ten feet ; but in 

 England they are seldom much above half so high ; they 

 send out many side branches, which spread to a considerable 

 distance, and will fasten themselves to the neighbouring 



