COL 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



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341 



before winter, Providence has so constructed it that they 

 may ripen at a considerable depth in the earth, out of the 

 reach of the usual effects of frost ; and, as seeds buried at a 

 certain depth are known not to vegetate, a no less admirable 

 provision is made to raise them above the surface when they 

 are perfected, and to sow them at a proper season. This 

 plant is a native of most parts of Europe. Mr. Miller observed 

 it in great plenty in the meadows near Castle Bromwich 

 in Warwickshire, in the beginning of September ; and says, 

 that the country people call the flowers naked ladies, because 

 they come up without any leaves ; a name they also apply to 

 the Hepatica, and indiscriminately to any plant, which has 

 flowers on naked scapes, appearing at different times from 

 the leaves. It is also found near Derby and Northampton ; 

 Bury in Suffolk ; in orchards on the borders of Malvern 

 Chase, and the meadows under Malvern Hills, in Worces- 

 tershire ; near Wallington and Hales-Owen, Shropshire ; 

 about Bath, Bristol Warminster, Shepton Mallet, South- 

 irate, and also near Comb in Oxfordshire, with a double 

 flower, and some varieties of colour ; besides some parts of 

 Scotland, where however it is not very common. The fol- 

 lowing are the varieties most cultivated by the florists : 1. 

 The Meadow Saffron, with white flowers ; 2. Meadow Saffron, 

 with striped flowers ; 3. Broad-leaved Meadow Saffron ; 4. 

 Striped-leaved Meadow Saffron ; 5. Many-flowered Meadow 

 Saffron ; 6. Meadow Saffron with double purplish flowers ; 7- 

 Meadow Saffron with double white flowers ; and 8. Meadow 

 Saffron with many white flowers. Cattle will not eat it : in a 

 pasture where there were several horses, and which was eaten 

 down rather bare, not a leaf of the Meadow Saffron was 

 bitten, although the grass was closely cropped even under the 

 leaves. Notwithstanding the concurrent testimony of ages has 

 condemned this plant as poisonous, Dr. Stoerck, of Vienna, 

 has taught us that it is a useful medicine : the roots are very 

 acrimonious ; and an infusion of them in vinegar, formed 

 into a syrup with the addition of sugar or honey, is found to 

 be a very useful pectoral and diuretic. It seems to resemble 

 Squill very much in its virtues, but is less acrid and nauseous, 

 though more sedative. Allioni, however, relates, that he 

 has found the Squill to be more safe and efficacious than the 

 Meadow Saffron ; and Meyrick also informs us, " that, indis- 

 creetly used, this root is poisonous, two drachms having 

 killed a large dog after twelve hours of excessive torment : 

 it operated violently by vomit, stool, and urine. A single 

 grain only, being swallowed by a person in health, by way of 

 experiment, produced heat in the stomach, and soon after 

 flushings in various parts of the body, with frequent shiver- 

 ings, which were followed by colic-like pains, after which 

 he felt an itching in the loins and urinary passages, and soon 

 after that a continual inclination to make water, with a tremor 

 and pain in the head, great thirst, a very quick pulse,and other 

 disagreeable symptoms. Yet, notwithstanding these effects, it 

 is, when properly prepared, a safe but powerful medicine. 

 The best way of preparing it is, to make it into a kind of 

 syrup, by digesting an ounce of the fresh roots, sliced in a 

 pint of white-wine-vinegar, over a gentle fire, for the space 

 of forty-eight hours, and then mixing twice its weight of 

 honey with the strained liquor, and letting it afterwards boil 

 gently until it becomes of a proper consistence : this syrup is 

 agreeably acid, gently vellicates or bites the tongue, is mode- 

 rately astringent, and excellent for cleansing the tongue from 

 mucus : in an increased dose, it vomits and sometimes purges, 

 but its most common operation is by urine, for which it is a 

 remarkably powerful medicine : the dose at first should be 

 but small, half a tea-spoonful twice or thrice a day is enough 

 to begin with, and the quantity may afterwards be gradually 

 VOL. i. 29 



increased, as the stomach will bear it, or the case may require. 

 It has been given with the most astonishing success in drop- 

 sies, and tertian agues, and it frequently succeeds as an 

 expectorant when all other means fail. 



2. Colchicum Montanum. Leaves linear, spreading very 

 much. The leaves of this species come up soon after the 

 flowers decay, and continue green all the winter, like the 

 Saffron ; they are long, narrow, and spread on the ground, 

 decaying in June ; the flowers, which appear earlier than the 

 common sort, are of a reddish purple colour, and come forth 

 in August and September. Native of Spain, Portugal, Italy, 

 the south of France, and Switzerland, 



3. Colchicum Variegatum; Variegated Meadow Saffron. 

 Leaves waved, spreading. The leaves of this are smaller than 

 those of the common sort, for the most part three in luimber, 

 and of a paler and fresher green colour, broad at the bottom, 

 a little pointed at the end, waved about the edges, and lying 

 close upon the ground ; root not so large as that of the com- 

 mon sort; flowers smaller, but very beautiful, whitish, with 

 deep blue or purple spots. It flowers late, frequently not till 

 October or November, and is somewhat tender. Native of 

 the Greek islands. 



Coldenia; a genus of the class Tetrandria, order Tetra- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth four- 

 leaved ; leaflets lanceolate, erect, length of the corolla.' Co- 

 rolla : one-petalled, funnel-form, with the opening pervious ; 

 border patulous, obtuse, four-cleft. Stamina : filamenta 

 four, inserted into the tube; anthera? roundish. Pistil: 

 germina four, ovate ; styles as many, capillary, length of the 

 stamina ; stigma simple, permanent. Pericarp : none ; fruit 

 ovate, compressed, scabrous, acuminate, terminated by four 

 beaks. Seeds: two, muricate, two-celled. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Calix .- four-leaved. Corolla .- funnel-form. 



Styles: four. Seeds: two-celled. One species only is 



known, 



1. Coldenia Procumbens. An annual plant, the branches 

 of which trail on the ground, extending nearly a foot from 

 the root, and dividing into many smaller branches ; leaves 

 alternate, egg-shaped, roundish at the summits, deeply 

 crenated, clothed with white hairs ; corolla of a pale blue 

 colour, and very small. Native of the East Indies. This 

 plant is propagated by seeds, which must be sown upon a 

 hot-bed in the spring ; and when the plants are fit to reinove, 

 they should be each put into a separate small pot, plunged 

 into a hot-bed of tanner's bark, observing to shade them until 

 they have taken fresh root, after which they should have air 

 admitted to them every day in proportion to the warmth of 

 the season, and gently watered two or three times a week in 

 warm weather, but they must not have too much moisture : 

 they require always to remain in the hot-bed, where they 

 will flower in June, and ripen seed in September. 



Coleworts, Coleseed, Collijloiver. See Brassica. 



Collinsonia : a genus of the class Diandria, order Mono- 

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

 tubular,two-lipped ; upper lip three-cleft, reflex, wider; lower 

 lip two-parted, more erect, subulate, permanent. Corolla . 

 one-petalled, unequal ; tube funnel- form, many times longer 

 than the calix ; borders five-cleft ; upper divisions obtuse, 

 very short, the two upper ones reflex ; lower lip longer, many- 

 cleft, capillary. Stamina filamenta two, bristle form, erect, 

 very long ; ant ha-ra simple, incumbent, compressed, obtuse. 

 Pistil: germen four-cleft, obtuse, with a larger glandule 

 lying below the germen ; style bristle-form, length of the 

 stamina, inclined to one side ; stigma bifid, acute. Peri- 

 carp ; none ; calix cherishes the seeds in its bottom, and is 

 ringent, with an irregular mouth. Seed; single, globose. 

 48 



