586 



SM I 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



SM I 



of this species for those of Sarsaparilla : they have the same 

 qualities, but in an inferior degree, and may be distinguished 

 by being larger, more porous, much less compressed, not so 

 well packed, and fastened by threads or osiers. Native of 

 the south of France, of Italy, Spain, Carniola, and of Syria; 



flowering in September. All the species of this genus 



grow naturally under hedges and in woods, therefore they 

 should be disposed in such a manner as to imitate their places 

 of growth, and not place them in the open sun, where they 

 will not thrive. The hardy species should be placed under 

 the shade of trees ; and the tender kinds may stand between 

 the pots containing tall plants. Such as are tender, must be 

 frequently watered in hot weather, and should then have a 

 large share of air admitted to them ; but in winter they must be 

 sparingly watered. They are generally preserved in the gar- 

 dens of the curious, for the sake of variety ; but some of them 

 may be so disposed as to become ornamental, because thu 

 first and second species, and the natives of North America, 

 are hardy enough to thrive in the open air in England ; and 

 as they retain their verdure all the year, if they be placed on 

 the borders of woods and groves, or in gardens, with their 

 branches properly supported, they will screen the nakedness 

 of the ground under the trees from sight, and in winter, when 

 their leaves are in beauty, they will make a pleasing variety, 

 if intermixed with other evergreens. They may be all pro- 

 pagated by seeds, procured from the countries where they 

 naturally grow, for they do not produce ripe seeds here. 

 Those sorts which have been brought from North America 

 sometimes produce flowers, but our summers are neither warm 

 enough nor sufficiently long to ripen their seeds. On this 

 account they are here propagated by parting their roots ; and 

 the best time for this is in autumn, that the offsets or young 

 plants may have time to get good roots before the frost comes 

 on ; and if, after they are planted, the cold should come on 

 earlier, or prove more severe, than ordinary, if the surface 

 of the ground about their roots be covered with some old 

 tanners' bark or mulch, to keep the frost out of the ground, 

 it will preserve them: but these roots should not be parted 

 oftener than every third or fourth year, for unless they are 

 large there will be but few stalks to them, and they can then 

 make but little appearance. When the seeds have been 

 obtained from abroad, sow them in pots filled with fresh light 

 earth, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed, observing to 

 water the earth frequently to keep it moist, because the seeds, 

 being hard, will not vegetate without a considerable share of 

 moisture ; these generally remain in the ground a whole year 

 before they grow, so that if the plants do not come up the 

 first season, the pots should be kept clean from weeds all 

 the summer; and in winter the hardy sorts should be shel- 

 tered from frost under a common frame, and the tender ones 

 plunged into the bark-bed in the stove; the following spring 

 they must be again plunged into the hot-bed, which will 

 bring the plants up very soon. They must then be frequently 

 watered in warm weather, and towards the end of May the 

 hardy sorts should be gradually inured to the open air, and 

 in June may be removed out of the bed and placed abroad in 

 a sheltered situation, where they ought to continue till the 

 frost comes on in autumn, and be then removed into shelter. 

 If the pots be plunged into an old tan-bed under a frame, 

 where they may be protected from the frost, and be exposed 

 to the open air in mild weather, they will thrive much better 

 than with more tender treatment. The tender sorts should 

 be plunged between the other pots in the bark-bed of the 

 stove, where they should remain all the winter; these plants 

 should remain untransplanted in the seed-pots till the follow- 

 ing spring, when they must be turned out of the pots, carefully 



separated, and planted into pots filled with fresh earth ; and 

 if the hardy sorts be then plunged into a very temperate hot- 

 bed, it will cause them to take new root speedily, and greatly 

 strengthen them; but the tender sorts should be plunged into 

 a good hot-bed of tanner's bark to bring the plants forward, 

 that they may get strength before winter, when they must be 

 treated as already directed. The hardy species should be 

 kept in pots for two or three years, that they may be sheltered 

 in winter, by which time they will have strength enough to 

 bear the cold in the open air ; so in the spring they may be 

 turned out of the pots, and planted where they are designed 

 to remain, observing, if the spring should prove dry, to refresh 

 them now and then with water, as also to lay some mulch 

 about them, to prevent the earth from drying ; and while the 

 plants are young, if some mulch is laid about their roots in 

 winter, it will be a sure means of preserving them. 



2. Smilax Excelsa; Tall Smilax. Stem prickly, angular ; 

 leaves unarmed, cordate, nine-nerved. Roots like those of 

 the preceding; flowers yellovvish-^reen; berries red. Native 

 of Syria. See the preceding species. 



3. Smilax Zeylanica ; Ceijlon Smilax. Stem prickly, angu- 

 lar; leaves unarmed; stem-leaves cordate; branch-leaves 

 ovate-oblong. Native of Ceylon. 



4. Smilax Sarsaparilla ; Medicinal Smilax, or Sarsaparilla. 

 Stem prickly, angular ; leaves unarmed, ovate, retuse, mucro- 

 nate, three-nerved. Root perennial, divided into several 

 branches, which are somewhat thicker than a goose-quill; 

 straight, externally brown, internally white, and three or four 

 feet in length. The name is derived from the Spanish Zarza, 

 red, and parilla, a little vine. At its first introduction, 

 it was considered as an undoubted specific in siphilitic and 

 some chronic disorders ; but whether owing to a difference of 

 climate, or other causes, European practitioners soon found 

 that it by no means answered the character which it had 

 acquired in the Spanish West Indies, and therefore it became 

 very much neglected. Many physicians, however, still con- 

 sider it as a medicine of much efficacy, and assert that the 

 lues venerea is much sooner subdued by giving Sarsaparilla 

 along with mercury. It is in frequent use at most of the 

 London Hospitals ; and Dr. Woodville relates, that he has 

 known patients, after the use of mercury, much sooner 

 restored to health by this root, than could have been accom- 

 plished by any other medicine with which we are acquainted, 

 especially when in powder. He also recommends the root in 

 rheumatic affections, scrofula, and cutaneous complaints, 

 where an acrimony of the fluids prevails. It may be given in 

 decoction or powder, and should be continued in large doses 

 for a considerable time. Infants who have received the vene- 

 real infection from their nurses, though covered with pustules 

 and ulcers, may be cured by the use of this root, without the 

 help of mercurials ; and the best way of giving it to such, is to 

 mix the powdered root with their food. Native of America, 

 Peru, Brazil, Mexico, and Virginia. It flowers in July and 

 August, and was first introduced into Spain as a medicine 

 about the middle of the sixteenth century. For its propaga- 

 tion and culture, see the first species. 



5. Smilax Oblongata. Stem prickly, angular ; leaves ob- 

 long, acuminate, smooth, three-nerved ; nerves prickly under- 

 neath ; branches subdivided, diverging, round, rigid, prickly, 

 with raised decurrent lines between the prickles ; flowers in 

 peduncled umbels, many together; peduncles shorter than the 

 petioles. Nativeof the West Indies. 



6. Smilax Quadrangularis. Plant aculeated ; stem tetra- 

 gonal, unarmed above; leaves unarmed, ovate, subcordate, 

 acute, five-nerved ; berries black. Grows in dry woods, on 

 the edges of ponds, from Pennsylvania to Georgia. 



