646 



TAM 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



TAN 



fomentation; they also drink it for internal injuries; and make 

 haqdles for whips, &c. of the wood. This is easily distin- 

 guished from the fourth species, by the fineness of its leaves, 

 and the flowers having only five stamina. The common sort 

 is found in great abundance near Sinigaglia in Italy, all along 

 the hedges near the sea, where the sheep are said to prefer 

 it to every other food. It has been gathered in a wild state on 

 St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall; near Hurst Castle in Hamp- 

 shire, and Hastings in Sussex. Propagation. The plants of 

 this genus may easily be increased, either by laying down their 

 tender shoots in autumn, or by planting cuttings in an eastern 

 border, which will take root in a short time, if they are sup- 

 plied with water in the spring, before they begin to shoot, in 

 dry weather; but they should not be removed until the 

 following autumn, when they may be either placed in a 

 nursery to be trained up two or three years, or else where 

 they are designed to remain, observing to mulch their roots, 

 and water them according as the season may require, until 

 they have taken root; after which, the only culture they will 

 require is to prune off the straggling shoots, and keep the 

 ground clean about them. The increasing by layers is not 

 only unnecessary trouble, since cuttings grow very readily, 

 but it is also a bad method, because they often will not strike 

 at all. The cuttings should be of the last summer's shoot,' 

 and a moist border is most proper for them. In two years 

 they will be good plants for the shrubbery, and may be 

 planted out in almost any soil, though they thrive best 

 (especially the German sort) in a moist soil. 



2. Tamarix Articulata ; Jointed Tamarisk. Flowers five- 

 stamined ; spikes lateral ; leaves very short, sheathed. Native 

 of the East Indies and Arabia. 



3. Tamarix Songarica ; Songarian Tamarisk. Flowers 

 eight or ten stamined, axillary, subspiked; leaves fleshy, ob- 

 tuse, three-sided. Found in Siberia. 



4. Tamarix Germanica; German Tamarisk. Flowers ten- 

 stamined ; spikes terminating; leaves sessile, linear-lanceo- 

 late. This species is particularly used abroad in obstructions 

 of the lower viscera, and especially in diseases of the spleen. 

 By combustion it yields no inconsiderable quantity of a fixed 

 salt, which is diuretic and aperient, and almost approaches 

 to Glauber's salt. The bark of the root is the most efficacious 

 part of the plant. A decoction of this bark is given in closes 

 of two to six drachms, or even of an ounce : double that 

 quantity of the wood and leaves are prescribed. The variety 

 described by Pallas, near the Caspian Sea, is remarkable 'for 

 having its stem herbaceous. Native of Germany, by the 

 banks of the Rhine and Danube; found also in Norway, 

 Dauphiny, and Spain. Common in English gardens, flower- 

 ing from June to September. 



Tamus ; a genus of the class Dioecia, order Hexandria. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Male. Calix: perianth six-parted ; 

 leaflets ovate-lanceolate, spreading more at top. Corolla : 

 none. Stamina : filamenta six, simple, shorter than the 

 calix; antbrrse erect. Female. Calix: perianth one-leafed, 

 six-parted, bell-shaped, spreading; segments lanceolate, 

 superior, deciduous. Corolla: petals none; nectary an ob- 

 long point, fastened internally to each calicine segment at 

 the .base. Pistil: germen ovate-oblong, large, smooth, 

 inferior; style cylindrical, length of the calix; stigmas three, 

 reflexed, emarginate, acute. Pericarp : berry ovate, three- 

 celled. Seeds: two in each cell, globular. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Male. Calix: six-parted. Corolla: none. 

 Female. Style: trifid. Berry : three-celled, inferior. Seed: 

 two in each cell. The species are, 



1. Tamus Communis; Common Black Briony. Leaves 

 cordate, undivided. Root perennial, very large, tuberose, 



blackish externally; stems herbaceous, branched, smoothish, 

 twining about every thing in their way, and thus ascending 

 without the aid of tendrils to the height of ten or twelve feet 

 in hedges or among bushes, which their festoons of tawny 

 leaves and red berries decorate in autumn. The male flowers 

 soon fall off; but the female are succeeded by ovate smooth 

 berries; these are insipid. The root of this plant is acrid, and 

 its pulp scraped has been used as a stimulating plaster. It 

 is one of the best remedies known against the gravel, and all 

 other obstructions and disorders of the urinary passages; and 

 is a powerful diuretic, and very efficacious in removing female 

 obstructions. The best method of giving it for the above pur- 

 poses, is to bruise the root, and give the expressed juice, with 

 the addition of a little white wine. The juice made into a 

 syrup with honey, is an admirable remedy for asthmatic com- 

 plaints, and other disorders of the breast and lungs. The 

 bruised root applied to the parts affected in paralytic cases, 

 has been found serviceable in many instances. The young 

 shoots are said to be good eating, when dressed like Aspara- 

 gus. The Moors eat them boiled, with oil and salt. Native 

 of Europe, but not of the northern parts: it is found in shady 

 thickets, hedges, and woods : also in the Levant, and about 

 Algiers. Sow the seeds soon after they are ripe, under shel- 

 ter of bushes, where, in spring, the plants will come up, and 

 require no further care. The roots will abide many years. 



2. Tamus Eltphantipes ; Tuberous Ctipe Black Briony. 

 Leaves kidney-shaped, undivided; root elevated, corky, and 

 tessalated. The root is a foot in diameter, rising out of the 

 ground, and is covered with brown knobs; it sends out in 

 the spring a slender, twining, annual stem, about eight feet 

 long: the flowers are yellowish-green. Native of the Cape. 



3. Tamus Cretica ; Cretan Black Briony. Leaves three- 

 lobed. The root of this is rounder than that of the preced- 

 ing species, but the principal difference is between their 

 leaves. It was found by Tournefort in Candia. It is an 

 abiding plant, hardy enough to live in the full ground in 

 England, and may be increased like the first species. 



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

 gamia-Superflua. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : com- 

 mon hemispherical, imbricate ; scales acute, compact. Co- 

 rolla: compound tubular, convex ; corollets hermaphrodite, 

 numerous, tubular, in the disk; females, some, in the ray: 

 proper of the hermaphrodite, funnel-form, with a five-cleft 

 reflexed border; female trifid, more deeply divided inwardly. 

 Stamina : in the hermaphrodites, filamenta five, capillary, 

 very short ; antheree cylindric, tubular. Pistil : in the her- 

 maphrodites, germen oblong, small ; style filiform, length 

 of the stamina ; stigma bifid, revolute : in the females, 

 germen oblong; style simple; stigmas two, reflexed. Peri- 

 carp: none; calix unchanged. Seeds: solitary, oblong, 

 crowned with more or less of a slight margin. Receptacle: 

 convex, naked. Observe. Sometimes there are, no radical 

 corollets, but all are hermaphrodite. Seed in some naked. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: imbricate, hemispherical. 

 Corolla : rays obsolete, trifid, sometimes wanting. Seed : 



crowned with a border. Receptacle: naked. The species 



are, 



1. Tanacetum Suffruticosum ; Shrubby Tansy. Leaves 

 pinnate, multifid ; segments linear, subdivided, acute ; stem 

 suffruticose. The flowers are produced in small roundish 

 bunches at the ends of the branches: they are of a bright 

 yellow colour, and appear in August. Native of the Cape 

 of Good Hope. This, and all the species from the Cape, 

 must be kept in pots, and removed into shelter before hard 

 frosts come on. They are easily increased by cuttings planted 

 in a bed of loamy earth during any of the summer months. 



