SAM 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



SAM 



523 



before the calices open, by the size of the protuberant grains. 

 For the species, see Marsilea. 



Samara; a genus of the class Tetrandria, order Monogy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth very small, 

 four-parted, acute, permanent. Corolla: petals four, ovate, 

 sessile, with a longitudinal pit at the base. Stamina : fila- 

 menta four, awl-shaped, long, opposite to the petals, im- 

 mersed in the pit; antherse subcordate. Pistil: germen 

 ovate, shorter by half than the corolla, superior, ending in 

 a style that is cylindrical and longer; stigma funnel-form. 

 Pericarp: drupe roundish. Seed: solitary. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Calix: four-parted. Petals: four. Stamina: 

 immersed in the base of the petal. Stigma: funnel-shaped. 

 Drupe : one-seeded. The species are, 



1. Samara Lseta. Flowers clustered, pedicelled ; leaves 

 ovate, obtuse; branches purplish, even; flowers small, yel- 

 lowish. This shrub is a native of the East Indies. 



2. Samara Coriacea. Flowers sessile, conglomerate; leaves 

 lanceolate-ovate, acute, subcoriaceous. This is a tree with 

 a trunk from twenty to thirty feet in height, and upright 

 branches. Native of Jamaica, where it is found on the 

 mountains and in the woods of the southern parts. 



3. Samara Pentandra. Flowers pentandrous ; leaves ellip- 

 tic-ovate, bluntish. This is distinct from the first and second 

 species, and agrees with the fourth in having five stamina to 

 the flowers. Native of the Cape. 



4. Samara Floribunda. Flowers pentandrous; leaves 

 obovate. This is a shrub, five feet high, branched at top ; 

 flowers copious, white, in lateral tufts. It flowers and fruits' 

 in December. Native of Cayenne and Guiana. 



Sambucus ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Trigy- 

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

 superior, five-parted, very small, permanent. Corolla: one- 

 petalled, rotate, concave, five-cleft, blunt; segments reflex. 

 Stamina : filamenta five, awl-shaped, the length of the corolla; 

 anthera roundish. Pistil: germen inferior, ovate, blunt; 

 style none, but instead of it a ventricose gland; stigmas 

 three, blunt. Pericarp: berry roundish, one-celled. Seeds: 

 three, convex on one side, angular on the other. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Calix : five-parted. Corolla : five-cleft. Berry: 

 three-seeded. The species are, 



1. Sambucus Ebulus; Dwarf Elder. Cymes three-parted; 

 stipules leafy; stem herbaceous; root perennial, creeping. 

 This plant seldom exceeds three feet high ; it was formerly 

 called Wallwort or Walewort, and Danewort, from a notion 

 of its having sprung from the blood of the Danes. It differs 

 from the Common Elder, in being herbaceous, in having a 

 creeping root, and narrower leaflets, more numerous, and 

 sometimes lobed. Found in waste places by the side of 

 hedges, flowering in July. The whole plant has a faint dis- 

 agreeable smell, stronger and more unpleasant, yet not unlike 

 that of the Common Elder, in the other properties of which 

 it also partakes ; be,ing generally a more violent medicine. 

 One drachm and a half of the root is a strong purge. The 

 rob made from the berries, though actively cathartic, may 

 be used with tolerable safety, as far as an ounce in a dose ; 

 but it has the inconveniences of Senna, and is not at all pre- 

 ferable to that drug. It can only be used as a medicine by 

 persons of a strong constitution, who are afflicted with drop- 

 sies or other watery humours. The leaves being bruised, and 

 laid on burns and scalds, take away the pain, and speedily 

 heal them. Boiled in lye, and applied by way of fomenta- 

 tion to any part affected with gouty pains, they frequently 

 procure a remission therefrom. The juice of the root is said 

 to turn any light-coloured hair black. No cattle will eat the 

 leaves ; the mole will not even come where the leaves, or 

 VOL. n. 109. 



those of the Common Elder, are laid ; mice also forsake the 

 granaries where these leaves are introduced, and they are in 

 consequence used to remove those mischievous little animals ; 

 and are strewn by the Silesians in their hog-sties, under the 

 persuasion that they prevent some of the diseases to which 

 swine are liable. This plant rapidly propagates itself where- 

 ever it is once planted, by its creeping roots, so that it is 

 very difficult to keep within bounds. 



2. Sambucus Canadensis; Canadian Elder. Cymes five- 

 parted ; leaves subbipinnate ; stem frutescent. This is a 

 middle species between the preceding and the following spe- 

 cies. The berries are small, dark red, and sweet. It flowers 

 from June to August, and is a native of North America. 

 This will put out roots from cuttings almost as easily as the 

 common sort; but, being liable to injury from severe frosts, 

 it should be planted in a sheltered situation. 



3. Sambucus Nigra; Common Elder. Cymes five-parted ; 

 leaflets ovate, serrate ; stem arboreous. This grows to a 

 bushy tree, twelve or sixteen feet in height, much branched, 

 and covered with a smooth gray bark when young, which 

 becomes rough on the trunk and older branches. There are 

 two British varieties of the common Elder; one with cut 

 leaves ; and hence called Parsley-leaved Elder : the berries 

 of both are whiter and more pleasant flavoured than the ori- 

 ginal species. The whole plant has a narcotic smell, and it 

 is not prudent to sleep under its shade. The wood is com- 

 monly made into skewers for butchers, tops for angling rods, 

 and needles for weaving nets. It is not bad wood to turn in 

 the lathe ; and the pith, which is exceedingly light, is cut 

 into balls, and is used in electrical experiments. This tree 

 is, as it were, a whole magazine of physic to rustic practi- 

 tioners, nor is it quite neglected by more regular ones. An 

 emollient ointment is made of the green inner bark ; -which 

 bark is also a strong purgative, and may be employed to 

 advantage where acrid stimulating purges are required. In 

 smaller doses it is diuretic, and has done essential service 

 in obstinate glandular obstructions, and in dropsies. Syden- 

 ham, who recommends it as an effectual hydragogue, directs 

 three handfuls of it to be boiled in a quart of milk and water, 

 till only a pint remains, of which one half is to be taken 

 night and morning, and repeated several days. Boerhaave 

 gave its expressed juice, in doses from a drachm to half an 

 ounce. It usually operates both upwards and downwards. 

 If sheep that have the rot can get at the bark and young 

 shoots, they will cure themselves. The leaves are also pur- 

 gative, but more nauseous than the bark; they are an ingre- 

 dient in several cooling ointments. If turnips, cabbages, 

 fruit-trees, or corn, be whipped with the green leaves and 

 branches of Elder, or if a gate stuck with the branches be 

 drawn over the crops, it is said that insects will not attack 

 them. An infusion of the leaves is useful for curious gar- 

 deners to sprinkle over the buds of such flowers as they wish 

 to preserve from minute caterpillars, for few insects can bear 

 the Elder. A decoction of the flowers, taken internally, is 

 said to promote expectoration in pleurisies : when fresh ga- 

 thered, they are gently laxative and aperient; when dry, 

 they are thought chiefly to promote the cuticular excretion, 

 and to be particularly serviceable in erysipetalous and erup- 

 tive disorders ; externally, they are used in fomentations, to 

 ease pain and abate inflammation. In the London Pharma- 

 copoeia, they are directed in form of an ointment. Many 

 persons use them to give a flavour to vinegar. The berries 

 are boiled into a rob, which is really useful in sore throats 

 and catarrhs, and acts as a gentle laxative in febrile disor- 

 ders. The officinal preparation of these berries, is the Suc- 

 cus Dacca 1 , Sambuci, Spissatus, of the London Pharmacopoeia, 



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