DOR 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



DOR 



469 



Hungary, and Savoy. This plant has been stigmatized as 

 poisonous, without much occasion, although it derives its 

 name from this imaginary noxious quality. The famous 

 Conrad Gesner, however, took two drachms of the root 

 without injury ; and some say that it is an antidote to poison, 

 which is still farther from the truth. It is not used in the 

 present practice ; and Dr. Stokes informs us, that two 

 drachms occasioned a sense of inflation in the stomach, and 

 also of general weakness, but that these symptoms were only 

 of short duration ; he adds, that it has been recommended 

 in vertigo, epilepsy, and menstrual obstructions, but that 

 these powers want the confirmation of a more accurate expe- 

 riment. It multiplies very fast by its spreading roots; and if 

 the seeds be permitted to scatter, they will produce plants 

 wherever they happen to fall, so that it becomes a weed 

 where it is once established : it loves a moist soil and 

 shady situation. 



'2. Doronicuni Plantaglneum ; Plantain-leaved Leopard's 

 Sane. Leaves ovate, acute, somewhat toothed ; branches 

 alternate. The stalks rise about two feet high; each is termi- 

 nated by a large yellow flower, which has two or three 

 alternate embracing leaves, not so hairy as those of the first 

 species. Native of Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal. 

 This is equally hardy with the first, and multiplies abun- 

 dantly. 



3. DoronicumBellidiastrum; Daisy-leaved Leopard's Bane. 

 Stem naked, very simple, one-flowered. This, like the two 

 preceding, has a perennial root ; the leaves are like those of 

 the common Daisy, but longer and not so broad ; the flower 

 irrows on a naked stalk, nearly a foot long ; and the root 

 >m sends out more than one stalk; the ray of the flower 

 is white, very like that of the common Daisy; disk yellow. 

 H;iller found it in the Lower Alps with adeep red flower. 

 Native of the Swiss, Tyrolese, and Italian Alps, and of 

 Austria, Carniola, and Silesia. This species is propagated 

 by parting the roots, for the seeds do not ripen well in Eng- 

 land; it must have a shady situation, and a moist soil. The 

 flowers do not make a much better appearance than those of 

 the common Daisy, only they stand on much taller stalks. 



Dorstenia ; a genus of the class Tetrandria, order Mono- 

 irynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : receptacle com- 

 num one-leafed, flat, cornered, very large, covered by the 

 receptacle, with very numerous floscules inhabiting the disk, 

 very small ; perianth proper four-cornered, concave, imbed- 

 ded in the receptacle, and united with it. Corolla : none. 

 Stamina : filamenta four, filiform, very short ; anthers 

 roundish. Pistil ; germen roundish ; style simple ; stigma 

 obtuse. Pericarp : none ; receptacle, common becoming 

 fleshy. Seeds : solitary, roundish, acuminate. ESSENTIAL 

 CHAHACTER. Receptacle : common one-leafed, fleshy, in 

 which solitary seeds nestle. It will be difficult to obtain 

 these plants, because the seeds are seldom to be found good, 

 nor will they grow if they be kept long out of the ground ; 

 so that the only sure method to obtain them, is to have the 

 roots taken up at the time when their leaves begin to decay, 

 and planted pretty closely in boxes of earth, which may be 

 brought very safely to England, provided they be preserved 

 from salt water, and are not too often supplied with fresh 

 during their passage. As soon as they arrive, each of them 

 hi be transplanted into a separate pot, filled with fresh 

 i, and plunged into the bark-stove, which should be kept 

 of a moderate heat : they must be frequently refreshed with 

 water during the summer season ; but in winter, when their 

 leaves are decayed, it should be more sparinglygiven. These 

 directions will enable any one who conforms to them, not 

 only to maintain, but increase the plants, by parting their 

 VOL i. 40. 



-The 



roots in the spring, before they put out their leaves .- 

 species are, 



1. Dorstenia Houston!. Scapesrootedjleavesheart-shaped, 

 angled, acute ; receptacles quadrangular. It sends out the 

 leaves upon footstalks eight or nine inches in length, and very 

 slender; the leaves are about three inches and a half long, 

 and almost four broad at their base, thetwo ears having two 

 or three angles, which are acute, and the middle of the leaves 

 are extended, and end in acute points like ahalbert; they 

 are smooth, and of a lucid green; the footstalk which sus- 

 tains the placenta is nine inches long, and about half an inch 

 square, and the upper surface closely set with small flowers. 

 Native of Campeachy, in South America. 



2. Dorstenia Contrayerva; Contrayerva. Scapes rooted ; 

 leaves pinnatifid-palmate, serrate ; receptacles quadrangular. 

 It sends out several leaves from the root, which are about 

 four inches long, and as much in breadth ; these are deeply 

 laoiniated into five or seven obtuse parts standing upon 

 footstalks nearly four inches long ; they are smooth, and of a 

 deep green. The stalks arise from the root, and grow nearly 

 four inches high, upon which the fleshy placenta is vertically 

 placed ; this is of an oval form, about one inch long, and 

 three quarters broad : upon the upper surface of this the 

 small flowers are closely situated, the fleshy part becoming 

 an involucre to them ; they are very small, and very indistinct 

 at a distance, being of an herbaceous colour. Native of New 

 Spain, Peru, Tobago, and St. Vincent's. The roots and seeds 

 of this plant are excellent aromatics, and alexipharmics or 

 counter poisons, and cure the bites of serpents, and stings of 

 scorpions, or black spiders. A decoction of the root in water, 

 is also good in dropsies, and debilitations, or taken as a bitter 

 in wine, with the addition of steel. The root, says Motherby, 

 has a light aromatic smell, and a very pungent bitter taste ; it 

 promotes perspiration, resists putrefaction, and is an excellent 

 medicine in malignant, low, and putrid fevers. Meyrick recom- 

 mends it for strengthening the stomach and digestive faculties, 

 dispersing wind, easing the colic, and is excellent in the decline 

 of ardent fevers, and through the whole course of putrid ones. 

 Hill remarks, that we use the roots ; he adds, our druggists 

 keepthem,and they are theprincipal ingredients in that famous 

 powder, called, from its being rolled up into balls, lapis con- 

 trayerva. It is an excellent cordial and sudorific, good in 

 fevers, and in nervous cases, and against indigestions, colics, 

 and weaknesses of the stomach : it may be taken in powder, or 

 in tincture.but it is better to give it alone than with that mixture 

 of crab's claws, and other useless ingredients, which are com- 

 pounded in the contrayerva-stone. In fevers and in nervous 

 disorders, it is best to give it in powder ; in weaknesses of 

 the stomach it is best in tincture, and is also an excellent 

 ingredient in bitter tinctures, so that it is wonderful that the 

 present practice has not put it to that use. All the old pre- 

 scribers of recipes for these things have put some warm root 

 into them, but none is so proper as this, although the galan- 

 gale is the most commonly used ; but that has a very dis- 

 agreeable flavour in the tincture, while the contrayerva, with 

 equal or superior virtues, is entirely free from that defect. 



3. Dorstenia Drakena. Scapes rooted ; leaves pinnatifid- 

 palmate, quite entire ; receptacle oval. This plant sends out 

 leaves of different forms, some of the lower ones are heart- 

 shaped, having a few indentures on their edges, and ending 

 in acute points, but the larger leaves are deeply cut, like the 

 fingers on a hand, into six or seven acute segments ; these 

 leaves are five inches long, and six broad in the middle ; they 

 are of a deep green, and stand upon long footstalks. The 

 placenta is very thick and fleshy, an inch and a half long, and 

 three-quarters broad, having four acute corners ; these have 

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