E RY 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



E R Y 



521 



slight aromatic warmth and pungency ; the roots are supposed 

 to have the same aphrodisiac virtues as the Orchis tribe : 

 they are kept in the shops candied, and are still regarded by 

 the Arabs as an excellent restorative. Boerhaave says, a 

 decoction of the roots drank freely, increases the urinary dis- 

 charge, and is serviceable in scorbutic complaints. Black- 

 well also informs us, that the roots are good in obstructions 

 of the liver, and in the jaundice ; they operate as a diuretic, 

 and are a good restorative in those consumptions that are 

 brought on by venereal excesses. The candied root, accord- 

 ing to Hill, is a good medicine in coughs, and other disorders 

 of the breast and lungs. A decoction of it while fresh forms 

 a good diuretic, which is serviceable in the jaundice, and 

 other disorders which arise from obstructions of the viscera : 

 when resorted to for these complaints, the frest root should 

 be preferred. Old English writers call this plant Sea-Holly, 

 Sea-Holme, and Sea-Huluer. It grows in great abundance 

 on the sandy and gravelly shores of many parts of Great 

 Britain, and other countries of Europe. This species will 

 grow in a garden, if the roots be planted in a gravelly soil, 

 and produce flowers annually; but the roots will not grow 

 near so large or fleshy as those which are found upon the sea- 

 shore, where they are overflowed with salt water. The best 

 time to transplant the roots is in autumn, when the leaves 

 decay; the young roots are much better to remove than the 

 old, because being furnished with fibres, they will readily 

 take root, and when fixed in the ground should remain un- 

 reraoved, and require no farther culture except to be kept 

 clean from weeds. 



7. Eryngium Campestre; Field Eringo. Root-leaves 

 stem-clasping, pinnate-lanceolate ; root perennial and strong. 

 The whole plant is very stiff, and of a pale green colour ; co- 

 rolla blue, sometimes white or yellowish ; appearing in July and 

 August. Native of most parts of Europe. In Great Britain 

 not very common, but is found upon the coast near the ferry 

 from Plymouth into Cornwall ; near Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; 

 below Melling, in Yorkshire ; also far inland, and opposite 

 Brook-hall, near Daventry, in Northamptonshire. Gerarde 

 cultivated this species in his garden. It is a very troublesome 

 weed, for the roots run deep into the ground, and are not easily 

 destroyed by the plough ; they spread and multiply greatly in 

 the ground, to the prejudice of whatever is sown or planted 

 on the land, and are therefore not admitted into gardens. 



8. Eryngium Amethystinum ; Amethystine Eringo. Root- 

 leaves trifid, subpinnate at the base ; the lower leaves are 

 divided, like the fingers of a hand, into five or six segments, 

 which are very much cut at their extremities into many parts, 

 and have small spines ; stem about two feet high, with smaller 

 and more divided leaves ; the upper part of the stem, and 

 also the heads of flowers, are of the finest amethystine colour, 

 so that they make a most beautiful appearance. There is a 

 variety, which is smaller, and the involucre has trifid folioles. 

 It flowers in July, and when the autumn proves dry, the seeds 

 will ripen in England. It may be propagated in the same 

 way as the third species, to which the reader is referred. 

 Native of the mountains of Stiria. 



9. Eryngium Triquetrum. Root-leaves trifid ; stem very 

 much branched; peduncles three-sided; involucres three- 

 leaved, keeled. Stem erect, rigid, a span or a foot in height, 

 round, smooth, amethystine, as are also the branches and 

 flowers ; branches alternate, divaricate, subdichotomous, 

 three-sided; stem-leaves three-parted, half stem-clasping; 

 segments lanceolate, rigid, spiny, with a spiny tooth on each 

 side at the base. Native of dry plains in Tunis in Africa. 



10. Eryngium Alpinum ; Alpine Eringo. Root-leaves heart- 

 shaped ; stem-leaves ternate, gashed ; involucres spiny, pin- 



VOL. i. 44. 



nate, ciliate ; root perennial. The leaves are cordate, and 

 toothed, the lower on long petioles, the upper stem-clasping; 

 the lower leaves resemble those of Cacalia, but are more 

 acute, and the teeth end in a soft spine ; amethystine leaves 

 surround the oblong head of flowers, some of them bristle- 

 form and reflex, others pinnatifid and lanceolate ; corolla 

 white ; antheree green. It is a plant, says Villars, curious to 

 see, on account of the beauty of the involucres, which are 

 of a vinous azure blue, mixed with green and white, scarcely 

 prickly ; the heads of flowers are much elongated, cylindric 

 in the lower, and suddenly rounded in the upper part. 

 Native of the mountains of Switzerland, Danphiny, and Italy. 

 It is cultivated in the same way as the third species. 



11. Eryngium Bourgati; Cut-leaved Eringo. Root and 

 stem-leaves alternate and three-parted, twice trifid ; involu- 

 cres awl-shaped, many-leaved, somewhat spiny. Height from 

 eight inches to a foot; stems thick, white, strong, and 

 branched from the bottom. Mr. Miller, who cultivated this 

 plant, says, that the stalks rise about two feet high ; that the 

 flowers are of a light blue colour, in very large heads, appear- 

 ing in June and July, and ripening seed in autumn. Native 

 of the south of France. 



Erysimum ; a genus of the class Tetradynamia, order Sili- 

 quosa. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth four- 

 leaved ; leaflets ovate-oblong, parallel, converging, coloured, 

 deciduous. Corolla: four-petalled, cruciform ; petals oblong, 

 flat, extremely obtuse at the tip ; claws length of the calix, 

 upright; gland nectariferous, double, within the shorter fila- 

 mentum. Stamina: filamenta six, length of the calix, those 

 of the two opposite shorter. Anther simple. Pistil: ger- 

 men linear, four-cornered, length of the stamina ; style very 

 short; stigma headed, permanent, small. Pericarp: silique 

 long, linear, strict, exactly four-cornered, two-vaived, two- 

 celled. Seeds: very many, small, roundish. ESSENTIAJ, 

 CHARACTER. Silique columnar, with four equal sides. 

 Calix : closed. These plants are seldom introduced, except 

 into botanic gardens ; most of them perish soon after they 

 have ripened their seeds, but the fifth sort will abide several 

 years in a dry lean soil, or on a wall ; in a rich land it soon 

 decays. They may all be propagated by sowing their seeds 

 in the autumn, where they are to remain, and afterwards 



require no farther culture, except thinning and weeding. 



The species are, 



1. Erysimum Oflficinale; Common Hedge Mustard. Sili- 

 ques pressed close to the spike, leaves runcinate; root an- 

 nual ; stem from one to two feet high, upright, round, finely 

 grooved, beset with numerous short rough hairs, branched, 

 and for the most part purplish, particularly at the angles of 

 the branches, which spread very much; racemes of flowers 

 terminating, roundish ; of fruits filiform, elongated, naked, 

 pubescent; seeds of a dull yellow, obliquely truncate at both 

 ends, immersed in the partition, and eight in each cell. 

 Viewed as it comes into blossom, and when its flowering- 

 branches shoot out horizontally to a great length, it scarcely 

 seems to be the same plant. It is common on dry banks, 

 under walls, pales, and in waste places, from May or June to 

 September. Linneus informs us, that it is excellent in asth- 

 mas, hoarseness, and other complaints of the breast. Ron- 

 deletius cured a hoarseness, brought on by loud speaking, in 

 a few days with this herb ; the juice of which is the most 

 excellent of all remedies for diseases of the throat, especially 

 in ulcerated sore throats, which it has been found to cure 

 when all the advise of physicians and surgeons proved in- 

 effectual. The above assertion is grounded on a manuscript 

 note, found by the late celebrated Dr. Withering, in a copy 

 of Parkinson's Herbal, which formerly belonged to Mr. Saun- 

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