288 



CHE 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL ; 



CHE 



height, with an herbaceous stem, becoming a little shrubby 

 at bottom, upright, branched, round ; leaves bright green, 

 three or four inches long ; flowers in terminating, very long, 

 proliferous, subdecumbent spikes, alternate, sessile, sulphur- 

 coloured, odorous ; siliques short ; seeds not margined. 

 Native of the deserts of Siberia 



Chelidonium ; a genus of the class Polyandria, order Mo- 

 nogynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth two- 

 leaved, roundish ; leaflets subovate, concave, obtuse, cadu- 

 cous. Corolla: petals four, roundish, flat, spreading, large, 

 narrower at the base. Stamina : filamcnta very many (thirty) 

 flat, broader at top, shorter than the corolla ; anthera? ob- 

 long, compressed, obtuse, erect, twin. Pistil: germen cylin- 

 dric, the length of the stamina ; style none ; stigma headed, 

 bifid. Pericarp: silique cylindric, subbivalve. Seeds: very 

 many, ovate, increased, shining ; receptacle linear, between 

 the valves, of a kind of circumambient suture, not gaping. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Corolla: four-petalled. Calix : 

 two-leaved. Silique -. one-celled, linear. If the seeds of the 

 four first species be permitted to scatter, the ground will be 

 plentifully stored with plants ; and if a few of them be thrown 

 among rock-work, they will come up without trouble, and 

 produce a good effect. Seeds sown in the autumn will grow 

 with more certainty than in the spring, and come earlier to 

 flower : they should be sown where they are intended to 

 remain, and will then require no care but to thin them where 



they are too close, and to keep them clean from weeds. 



The species are, 



1. Chelidonium Majus ; Common or Great Celandine. Pe- 

 duncles umbelled. Stem erect, from a foot to eighteen inches 

 in height, cylindric, a little hairy. It is common in hedges 

 and other shady places, in uncultivated grounds, upon walls, 

 and among rubbish ; flowering from May to July , during which 

 time it is in the greatest perfection for use. The juice of 

 every part of this plant is saffron-coloured, and very acrimo- 

 nious : it cures tetters and ring-worms : diluted with milk it 

 consumes white opaque spots on the eyes : it destroys warts, 

 and cures the itch. There is no doubt but a medicine of such 

 activity will one day be converted to more important purposes. 

 Hill observes, that it is an admirable medicine in obstructions 

 of the viscera. The root, beat into a conserve with sugar, 

 operates both by stool and urine, and is good in the jaundice. 

 An infusion of the sliced roots is a cordial, and greatly pro- 

 motes perspiration ; and the juice, both taken inwardly and 

 applied externally, is said to be singularly useful in disorders 

 of the eyes. The root dried and reduced to powder, is some- 

 times given to the quantity of half a drachm for a dose, in the 

 bloody flux and other haemorrhages. Meyrick says, that both 

 the roots and leaves of Celandine have a very acrid and some- 

 what bitterish taste, which is however much the strongest 

 in the roots. The plant is often used in obstinate jaundices, 

 dropsies, suppressions of the menses, and other disorders ; 

 but the utmost caution should be employed in administering 

 a medicine so highly acrimonious and irritating. There is a 

 variety of this species with double flowers, which generally 

 rises the same from seeds ; and may also be preserved by 

 parting the roots. 



2. Chelidonium Glaucium ; Sea Celandine, or Yellow Horned 

 Poppy. Peduncles one-flowered ; leaves stem-clasping, sinu- 

 ated; stem smooth. The whole plant is glaucous; stemstrong, 

 nearly two feet high, much branched ; petals large, ovate, 

 yellow. The large and numerous flowers, which, although 

 of short duration, succeed one another in great abundance 

 during most part of summer, make a fine contrast with the 

 sea-green dew-bespangled leaves, and are a (Treat ornament 

 to our sandy shores. The whole plant abounds in a yellow 



juice, is fetid, and of a poisonous quality, being reputed (o 

 occasion madness. Native of sandy soils, in Switzerland, 

 France, Italy, Austria, Carniola, Denmark, Virginia ; and 

 on the coasts of Britain, frequently within reach of the spray 

 of the sea, as in Norfolk, Suffolk, about Dunwich, 8cc. Lanca- 

 shire, the isle of Wight, Kent, Essex, Wales, and Scotland. 

 It flowers from June to August. 



3. Chelidonium Corniculatum ; Red Celandine, or Horned 

 Poppy. Peduncles one-flowered ; leaves sessile, pinnatifid ; 

 stem hispid. Plant glaucous ; root spindle-slmped ; petal* 

 oval, deep orange, veined, with an elliptic purplish spot at 

 the base of each, soon falling off. Native of Hungary, Bohe- 

 mia, Moravia, Austria, about Montpellier, in Piedmont, and 

 in Spain : annual ; flowering in July and August. Found in 

 the sandy corn-fields of Norfolk. 



4. Chelidonium Hybridum; Violet Celandine, or Horned 

 Poppy. Peduncles one-flowered ; leaves pinnatifid, linear ; 

 stem glossy, slightly hairy ; siliques three-valved. Stem erect, 

 a foot high , petals violet, fugacious, seldom lasting above 

 three or four hours ; anthera; twin, pale blue. Native of 

 the southern countries of Europe, and of sandy corn-fields, 

 between Swaffham and Burwell in Cambridgeshire, and in 

 Norfolk. Annual : flowering in July and August. 



5. Chelidonium Japonicum. Peduncles one-flowered ; 

 leaves petioled, pinnated, ovate. Stem herbaceous, striated, 

 smooth, weak, erect ; corolla a little longer than the calix, 

 and yellow. Native of Japan. 



Chelone ; a genus of the class Didynamia, order Angio- 

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

 five-parted, very short, permanent ; divisions erect, ovate. 

 Corolla: monopetalous, ringent ; tube cylindric, very short; 

 throat inflated, oblong, convex above, flat beneath ; border 

 closed, small ; upper lip obtuse, emarginate ; lower almost 

 equal to the upper, very slightly trifid. Stamina : filamcnta 

 four, hid beneath the back of the corolla, the two side ones 

 a little longer ; anthera? incumbent ; the rudiment of a fifth 

 filamentum, like the point of a dagger between the upper 

 pair of stamina. Pistil : germen ovate ; style filiform, 

 situation and length of the stamina ; stigma obtuse. Peri- 

 carp: capsule ovate, two-celled, longer tnan the calix. 

 Seeds: very many, roundish, surrounded with a membranous 

 rim. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : five-parted. Ru- 

 diment of a fifth filamentum between the upper stamina. 

 Capsule: two-celled. The seeds of all the species succeed 

 best, if they be sown in autumn ; for when they are sown in 

 the spring, they frequently lie a whole year before the plants 

 come up ; for which reason, where the seeds scatter, the 

 plants will come up much better than those which are sown 

 by hand. The species are, 



1. Chelone Glabra ; White Chelone. Leaves petioled, lan- 

 ceolate, obsoletely serrated ; upper ones opposite. This 

 grows naturally in most parts of North America, and is called 

 the humming-bird tree by Joscelin, in his New England 

 Rarities. It has a pretty thick jointed root,, which is peren- 

 nial, fibrous, and creeping ; stems three feet high, erect, 

 cylindrical : the flowers grow in a close spike at the end 

 of the stalks ; they are white, and have but one petal, 

 which is tubular and narrow at the bottom, but swells to- 

 ward the top almost like the Fox-glove flower. It flowers in 

 August, and when the autumn proves favourable, will some- 

 times ripen in England ; but as the plants propagate so fast 

 by their creeping roots, the seeds are seldom regarded. The 

 best time to transplant the roots is in autumn, that they may 

 be well established in the ground before the spring, other- 

 wise they will not flower so strong, especially if the season 

 prove dry ; but when they are removed in the spring, it 



