654 



HA I 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL: 



HAL 



to its virtue, which makes it more agreeable to the palate. 

 The inner bark is red, and the wood bard. The wood, says 

 Hill, is a very powerful medicine, to stop fluxes of the belly, 

 and overflowings of the menses : the best way of giving it is 

 in form of an extract, which is to be made by boiling down 

 a strong decoction of it to the consistence of honey ; in this 

 form it will keep a long time, and is always ready for use. 

 A strong decoction of this wood, says Meyrick, is found very 

 efficacious for stopping obstinate purges, without contracting 

 the fibres, as the common astringents do : it sheathes and 

 blunts acrimonious humours, and has more of a balsamic than 

 an astringent taste : it strengthens the stomach and bowels, 

 and indeed the general habit, and is an agreeable medicine 

 to take, being free from any thing disgustful to the taste, and 

 almost void of smell : the decoction is made by boiling three 

 ounces of powdered logwood in four pints of water, till it 

 comes to a quart, and then adding about two drachms of 

 cinnamon, which must be allowed to boil together with the 

 logwood a few minutes longer ; then, after letting it cool, the 

 liquor must be strained off for use, and may be taken to the 

 amount of three or four ounces, three or four times a day. 

 This decoction is equally agreeable, mild, and safe, and has 

 this advantage attending it, that it may be administered with 

 equal safety, whether the disorder be attended with a fever 

 or not: it commonly tinges the stools, and sometimes the 

 urine, of a deep reddish purple colour ; of which circum- 

 stance the patient ought to be apprised, that he may not 

 alarm himself, by supposing the colour of the discharge 

 owing to blood. Logwood is a well-known ingredient in 

 dyeing: stuffs, however, would take only a slight and fading 

 colour from logwood, if they were not previously prepared 

 with alum and tartar ; a little of the former is also added to 

 the bath, and by these means a tolerably good violet colour 

 is produced. A blue colour may be obtained from this wood, 

 by mixing verdigris with the bath, and dipping the cloth till 

 it has acquired the shade which is desired : the grand use 

 of logwood, however, is for blacks, to which it gives a lustre 

 and velvet cast, and for grays of certain shades : it is also of 

 very extensive use for different compound colours, which 

 it would be difficult to obtain of equal beauty and variety 

 by means of drugs affording a dye of greater permanency. 

 It is used for dyeing silk, violet ; for this the silk must be 

 scoured, alumed, and washed, because without the alom it 

 would only take a reddish tinge that would not stand wetting. 

 To dye silk thus, it must be turned in a cold decoction of 

 logwood, till it has acquired the proper colour : if the de- 

 coction were used while hot, the colour would he in stripes 

 very uneven. Bergman has observed, that a fine violet 

 might be produced from logwood, by impregnating the silk 

 with solution of tin ; in fact we may thus obtain, particularly 

 by mixing logwood and Brazil-wood in various proportions, a 

 great number of fine shades, more or less inclined to red, 

 from the lilac to the violet hue. The seeds of this tree are 

 frequently brought from America, and, when fresh, will grow 

 readily, if sown upon a good hot-bed ; if the bed be kept in 

 a moderate temperature they will grow to be upwards of a 

 foot high in the first year : while the plants are young they 

 are generally well furnished with leaves, in which they are 

 often afterwards very deficient, making but little progress. 

 They are very tender, and should be constantly kept in the 

 bark-stove, where, if duly watered, and the stove be kept in 

 a due degree of heat, they may be easily preserved. In the 

 West Indies, it thrives best in low swampy lands, or shallow 

 waters, on a rich and tolerably firm soil. 



Hair-bell. See Hyacinthus. 



Hair Grass. See Aira. 



Halbert Weed. See Calea Lobata. 



Halesia ; a genus of the class Dodecandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth one-leat'ed, 

 very small, superior, four-toothed, permanent. Corolla: 

 monopetalous, bell-shaped, ventricose ; mouth four-lobed, 

 blunt, patulous. Stamina : filamenta twelve, (seldom six- 

 teen,) subulate, upright, a little shorter than the corolla ; 

 anthcrae oblong, blunt; upright. Pistil: gerinen oblong, in- 

 ferior ; style filiform, longer than the corolla ; stigma simple. 

 Pericarp: nut corticate, oblong, narrowing to both ends, 

 four-cornered, the corners membranaceous, two-celled. 

 Seeds: solitary. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: four- 

 toothed, superior. Corolla : four-cleft. Nut: quadrangular, 

 with two seeds. The plants of this genus are propagated 

 by seeds, when they can be procured fresh from the places 

 of their natural growth ; they should be sown in pots as soon 

 as they arrive, placing the pots ia the ground where they may 

 only have the morning sun : the seeds often remain a year in 

 the ground ; therefore the earth in the pots should not be dis- 

 turbed, until there be no probability that the seeds will grow. 

 When the plants come up, screen them from the sun, and 

 water them frequently, but sparingly. In the following 

 autumn, the pots should be placed in a common frame, 

 where the plants may enjoy the free air in mild weather, and 

 be screened from frost: in the succeeding spring, and before 

 they begin to shoot, they should each be put into a small pot, 

 plunging the pots in a frame shaded from the sun. In the. 

 third spring they may be turned out of the pots, and planted 

 where they are to remain. The species are, 



1. Halesia Tetraptera ; Four-winged Halesia, or Snowdroji 

 Tree. Leaves lanceolate-ovate, serrate, sharp-pointed, alter- 

 nate, on short glandular footstalks. This tree frequently 

 comes up with two or three stems, from fifteen to twenty 

 feet high, sending out branches towards their tops ; the 

 flower hanging in small bunches, all along the brai; 

 each gem producing from four to eight or nine ; they are of a 

 pure snowy whiteness; and as they blow early in the spring, 

 before the leaves appear, and continue for two or three weeks, 

 they make a most elegant appearance ; the flowers are suc- 

 ceeded by a tolerably large four-winged fruit, hanging also 

 in bunches, and very agreeable to the taste. The wood is 

 hard and veined ; and the bark of a darkish colour, with many 

 irregular shallow fissures. It flowers in April and May. 

 Native of South Carolina, on the banks of the Sautee river. 



2. Halesia Diptera ; Two-winged Halesia. Leaves ovate ; 

 petioles smooth and even ; fruit, mucronate, with two large 

 wings opposite to each other, and two minute. Native of 

 Georgia, on the banks of the Savannah river. 



3. Halesia Parviflora. Flowers small. This much re- 

 sembles the first species. Found in Florida, near Matanza. 



Halle-ia ; a genus of the class Didynamia, order Angio- 

 spermia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one- 

 leafed, trifid, flat, spreading, very obtuse, permanent; the 

 upper cleft, twice as broad as the rest. Corolla : monopeta- 

 lous, ringent ; tube roundish at the base, bent in with a swell- 

 ing throat; border upright, oblique, four-cleft; the upper 

 cleft a little longer than the others, blunt, emarginate; the 

 side ones shorter, broader, sharper ; the lowest very short, 

 very slender, and very sharp. Stamina : filamenta four, bris- 

 tle-sh;ped, straight, inserted into the tube, longer than the 

 corolla; antherse roundish, twin. Pistil: germen superior, 

 ovate, ending in a style longer than the stamina; stigma sim- 

 ple. Pericarp: berry roundish, two-celled. Seeds: small, 

 flat, roundish, winged. ESSF.XTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: 

 tritid. Corolla: qiiadrifiti. Filamentn : longer than the co- 

 rolla. Berry: superior, two-celled. The species are, 



