SP I 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



S P I 



613 



disease, as this is in those that proceed from worms, when 

 attended with fever or convulsions. Take of the plant, roots 

 and all, either fresh or dry, two moderate handfuls, and boil 

 them over a gentle fire, in two quarts of water, until one half 

 of the liquid is consumed; then strain off the remainder, and 

 add a little sugar and lemon-juice, to give it a more agreeable 

 taste, and to keep it from growing viscid or ropy. To a full- 

 grown person give half a pint at the hour of rest, and a pro- 

 portionate quantity to all weaker and younger subjects. 

 Repeat the dose once in twenty-four hours for two or three 

 days after. But as the largeness of this dose may render its 

 operation too violent, the following method is less hazardous, 

 and as effectual : Give about four ounces to a full-grown 

 person for the first dose, and two or three oiMices every six 

 hours after, if its anodyne quality will permit; but to persons 

 of a delicate constitution, it should be repeated only every 

 ten or twelve hours : this is to be continued for thirty-six or 

 forty-eight hours, when the double dose may be again repeated, 

 and after this takes its full effect, it must be worked off with 

 some gentle purgatives. This medicine procures sleep almost 

 as certainly, and in an equal degree, with opium ; but the 

 eyes seem distended, and appear bright and sparkling, as 

 they generally do before the eruption of the small-pox and 

 measles, after the sleepy effects are over. In a short time 

 after the first dose is administered, the pulse grows regular, 

 and begins to rise; the fever cools; (he convulsions, if any, 

 abate; and the worms are genet ally discharged in great quan- 

 tities, by the use of the subsequent purgatives, if not before: 

 but when a few only are voided, and those alive, which sel- 

 dom happens, the dose must be repeated, and then hardly 

 ever fails to cure. To propagate this plant, sow the seeds 

 in pots filled with soft loamy earth in the autumn, and 

 plunge them into the bark-bed, where they should remain 

 till the spring, when they must be plunged into a fresh hot- 

 bed. Afterwards plant them in several pots, shading them 

 till they have taken root, and then treat them in the same 

 way as other tender annual plants from the same countries, 

 keeping them constantly in the hot-bed under cover, to 

 perfect the seeds. 



2. Spigelia Marilandica; Perennial Worm-grass. Stem 

 four-cornered ; all the leaves opposite. Root perennial, 

 fibrous; stem herbaceous, erect, six or eight inches high, 

 terminated by a short spike of flowers, which are outside of 

 a bright red, and the inside of a deep orange colour. It 

 flowers here in July and August. Native of the warmer 

 parts of North America, as in Virginia, Maryland, and Caro- 

 lina, where it is called Indian Pink. The accounts of the 

 vermifuge virtues of this genus, given by Doctors Garden 

 and Linnings, refer to this species; and as the efficacy re- 

 sides principally in the root, which in (he preceding is but 

 small, this is by some thought to be preferable. Dr. Garden, 

 in his first letter to Dr. Hope, about the year 1763, says, 

 "About forty years ago, the anthelminthic virtues of the root 

 of this plant were discovered by the Cherokee Indians; since 

 which time it has been much used by physicians and planters. 

 I never found it do much service, except when it proved gently 

 purgative. Previous to the use of it, I have lately given a 

 vomit, when the circumstances of the case permitted it, a-nd 

 have found it to answer so well, that it should never be omit- 

 ted. I have known half a drachm of this root purge as 

 briskly as the same quantity of rhubarb; but at oilier times 

 it has produced no such effect in larger quantities. It is in 

 general safer to give it in larger doses; for giddiness, dimness 

 of sight, and convulsions, frequently result from small ones, 

 whereas large ones only prove emetic or violently cathartic. 

 To a child of two years of age, who had been taking ten 



grains of the root twice a day, without any other effect than 

 making her dull and giddy, I prescribed twenty-two grains 

 morning and evening, which purged her briskly, and brought 

 away five large worms. After some months, an increased 

 dose had the same good effects. Of the root, properly dried, 

 I give from twelve to sixty or seventy grains i-n substance. 

 In infusion, it may be given to the quantity of two, three, or 

 four drachms twice a day." In subsequent letters, the same 

 medical gentleman confirms the above statements of the effi- 

 oacy of this root in worm cases. In what he terms continued 

 or remitting low fevers, he found its efficacy promoted by the 

 addition of the root of Serpentaria Virginica. It is not easily 

 propagated in England, for the seeds do not ripen here, and 

 the roots increase slowly: hence the plant is very uncommon 

 in the English gardens at present. It delights in a moist 

 soil, and must not be often transplanted. 



Spignel. See jEthusa and Athamanta. 



Spikenard. See Andropogon and Nardus. 



Spikenard, Plowman's. .See Baccharis and Conyza. 



Spilanthus ; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Poly- 

 gamia jEqualis. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : common 

 subhemispherical, imbricate ; scales lanceolate-linear, com- 

 pact, in a double row. Corolla : compound uniform, tubu- 

 lar, conieo-convex ; corollets hermaphrodite, numerous, 

 equal ; proper one-petalled, funnel-shaped ; border four or 

 five cleft, reflexed. Stamina : filamenta four or five, capil- 

 lary, very short; antherae cylindric, tubular. Pistil: germen 

 oblong, compressed; style filiform, length of the stamina; 

 stigmas two, lecurved. Pericarp: none; the calix un- 

 changed. Seeds: solitary, oblong, compressed, flat. Down: 

 membranaceous-rnargined, two-awned at the tip, one awn 

 often smaller than the other. Receptacle: chaffy, conical ; 

 chaffs compressed, deciduous. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Calix: almost equal. Down.- two-awned. Receptacle : coni- 

 cal, chaffy. The species are, 



1. Spilanthus Urens; Biting Spilanthus. Leaves lanceolate, 

 quite entire; stem prostrate. Root perennial, fibrous; pe- 

 duncles onc-flowere-d, solitary, suberect, together with their 

 branchlet, long, subterminating, bearing a whitish scentless 

 flower, variegated with black dots, which proceed from the 

 antherae shedding their dark pollen over the corolla : after 

 the flower is peifectly opened, from the side of the peduncle 

 at the base, a new leafy stemlet springs forth, which in time 

 produces its flower. It flowers from May to October. 

 Native of America, about Carthagena, in sandy fields. Sow 

 the seeds upon a moderate hot-bed in the spring; and when 

 the plants are fit to remove, transplant them into a fresh hot- 

 bed, shading them till they have taken new root, and then 

 treating them as other tender plants, being careful not to 

 draw them up too weak. In June take them up with balls 

 of earth to their roots, and plant them in a warm border, 

 shading and watering them : several of them may be kept 

 through the winter in a stove. 



2. Spilanthus Pseudo-Acmella; Spear-leaved Spilanthus. 

 Leaves lanceolate, serrate; stem erect. Branches opposite ; 

 flower, together with the oalix, ovate, yellow, without any 

 ray. It flowers in July. Annual. Native of Ceylon. 



3. Spilanthus Albus ; White-flowered Spilanthus. Leaves 

 ovate, almost entire, lower alternate, upper opposite ; stem 

 panicled ; root annual, fibrous, whitish, exciting salvia ; 

 flowers terminating, solitary, erect, conical, obtuse, white; 

 they appear in June and July. Native of Peru. 



4. Spilanthus Acme-lla; Balm-leaved Spilanthus. Leaves 

 ovate, serrate ; stem erect ; flowers radiate. It is difficult to 

 distinguish this from the second species, so great is the resem- 

 blance. Stalks two feet high, much branched. The pedun- 



