RUT 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



RU Y 



503 



inscribed with a cross, surrounded at the base by tea honey 

 dots, raised on a receptacle, punctured with ten honey pores; 

 style erect, awl-shaped ; stigma simple. Pericarp : capsule 

 gibbous, five-lobed, half five-cleft, five-celled, opening into 

 five parts between the tips. Seeds : very many, rugged, reni- 

 form, angular. Observe, The first species, in all the flowers 

 except the primary one, loses a fifth of every part of the 

 fructification ; and the third species has the petals fringed 

 at the base. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: five-parted. 

 Petals: concave. Receptacle: surrounded by ten honey dots. 



Capsule: lobed. The species are, 



1. Ruta Graveolens; Common Rue. Leaves superdecom- 

 pound ; leaflets oblong, the end one obovate ; petals quite 

 entire. Root woody, branched ; stems frutescent, covered 

 with a rugged, gray, striated bark, eighteen inches high and 

 more ; branches, especially the young ones, smooth, and pale 

 green ; flowers of a pale dull yellow colour, copious, in ter- 

 minal corymbose panicles. The varieties are, the Common 

 Broad-leaved Rue, the Narrow-leaved Rue, and the Varie- 

 gated-leaved Rue. Native of the south of Europe, and 

 flowering from June to September. It was much used by the 

 ancients. Hippocrates commends it as a resolvent and diu- 

 retic, and attributes to it the power of resisting contagions 

 and poisons, which is now very little credited, though so 

 highly extolled by Boerhaave. It is unquestionably a power- 

 ful stimulant, and may be considered, like other medicines 

 of the fetid kind, as having attenuating, deobstruent, and 

 antispasmodic powers ; and as peculiarly adapted to phleg- 

 matic habits, or weak and hysterical constitutions, suffering 

 from retarded or obstructed secretions. The whole plant 

 has a strong, and rather disagreeable smell ; if the leaves 

 are rubbed on the skin, they inflame the part, and some 

 people make use of them in this manner to cure the headache. 

 The tops of the young shoots contain the greatest virtues of 

 any part of the plant. An infusion of them may be taken in 

 the manner of tea, or they may be beaten into a conserve 

 with three times their weight of sugar, and taken in that form. 

 The infusion is good in feverish complaints; it raises the 

 spirits, promotes perspiration, and expels the matter which 

 occasions the disease. The conserve is good against the 

 headache, nervous and hysteric disorders, weakness of the 

 stomach, and pains in the bowels. It is likewise serviceable 

 in suppressions of the menses, and disorders occasioned 

 thereby; and, taken for a considerable time, has been found 

 beneficial to those troubled with the epilepsy, or falling sick- 

 ness. The expressed juice, taken in small quantities-, is a 

 remedy for that troublesome nervous complaint, the night- 

 mare. It is a good thing to snuff up the nose for such as are 

 obliged to go among putrid and contagious disorders. Cul- 

 ture. All the plants of this genus may be propagated either 

 by sowing their seeds, or by planting slips or cuttings; both 

 of which may be done in the spring. The manner of propa- 

 gating them from cuttings, being the same as for Lavender, 

 Stoechas, and other hardy aromatic plants, need not be here 

 repeated. It is the most expeditious method of raising these 

 plants, as every slip or cutting of the young wood will readily 

 grow, and is the only method by which the varieties can be 

 continued distinct. If they are propagated by seeds, there 

 ;eds no further care but to dig a bed of fresh earth in the 

 )ring, making it level ; then to sow the seed thereon, and 

 rake the ground smooth ; after which, keep the beds' clear 

 from weeds, until the plants are come up about two inches 

 high, when they should be transplanted out into fresh beds, 

 where they may remain for use. It was formerly used to 

 plant for edgings on the side of borders; but it was by no 

 means proper for this, for the plants shoot so vigorously, that 

 VOL. ii. 108. 



there is no keeping them within the bounds of an edging : 

 besides, when they are kept closely sheared, they appear to 

 be very ragged and stumpy, and their roots spread so far as 

 to exhaust the goodfless of the soil, so that the other plants 

 are deprived of their nourishment ; which has caused it to be 

 wholly neglected for this purpose, so that at present it is cul- 

 tivated for medicinal use, or to furnish the balconies for the 

 citizens in the spring, especially that with a variegated leaf. 

 All the sorts of Rue will live much longer, and are less liable 

 to be injured by frost in winter, when they grow in a poor 

 dry mbbishy soil, than in good ground. 



2. Ruta Montana ; Mountain Rue. Leaves superdecom- 

 pound ; all the leaflets linear ; petals quite entire. The flowers 

 grow at the ends of the branches in loose spikes," which are 

 generally reflexed. It flowers in August and September. 

 Native of the south of Europe, and Barbary. This, and the 

 next species are tenderer than the common sort, so require 

 shelter in winter. 



3. Ruta Chalepensis ; African Rue. Leaves superdecom- 

 pound ; leaflets oblong, the end one obovate ; petals ciliate- 

 toothed. This is very like the first species, but has larger 

 flowers ; the petals are hollowed like the bowl of a spoon, 

 with great flatted hairs, like eye-lashes, round them. They 

 smell insupportably strong. Linneus having observed that 

 Rue moves one of its stamina every day to the pistil, Dr. 

 Smith examined this species, which differs very little from 

 the Common Rue, and found many of the stamina in the 

 position which he describes, holding their antherae over the 

 stigma ; while those which had not yet come to the stigma 

 were lying back upon the petals, as well as those which, 

 having already performed their office, had returned to their 

 original situation. Trying with a quill to stimulate the sta- 

 mina, he found them all quite destitute of irritability : they 

 are stout, strong, conical bSdies, and cannot without break- 

 ing be forced out of their natural position. The same phe- 

 nomenon has been observed in several other flowers; but it 

 is no where more striking, or more easily examined, than in 

 the Rue. It flowers from June to September. Native of 

 Africa and the East Indies. 



4. Ruta Pinnata ; Wing-leaved Rue. Leaves pinnate ; 

 leaflets lanceolate, attenuated at the base, serrate-crenate ; 

 petals somewhat notched. It flowers in March. Native of 

 the Canary Islands. 



5. Ruta Patavina ; Three-leaved Rue. Leaves ternate, ses- 

 sile; stamens hairy; germen crested. The root is woody, and 

 perennial; stems several, a foot high, branched at the base 

 only; flowers five-cleft, in a terminal, dense, corymbose pani- 

 cle ; petals of a pale dull yellow, with a green central rib. 

 Discovered in Italy near Padua. This is propagated by 

 seeds sown in autumn soon after they are ripe. The plants 

 will corge up in the following spring; whereas when the 

 seeds are sown in the spring, the plants seldom rise in the 

 same year. On poor ground, or among rubbish, in a warm 

 situation, it will live in the open air without covering; but 

 in winter is often kilted in rich ground. 



6. Ruta Linifolia ; Flax-leaved Rue. Leaves simple, lan- 

 ceolate, smooth ; filamenta ciliate ; stem simple, herbaceous. 

 Native of Spain and Tunis. This will live through the 

 winter in the open air, on a poor dry soil, and will perfect 

 seeds the second year ; but as it is of short duration, young 

 plants should be raised annually to keep up a succession. 



7. Ruta Fruticulosa ; Shrubby Rue. Leaves simple, linear, 

 spatulate, pubescent; filamenta woolly. Stem branched, 

 shrubby. The flowers are only half the size of those of the 

 preceding species. Native of Syria, near Damascus. 



Ruyschia; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Mono- 

 6M 



