680 



TOR 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



TOR 



roundish, almost flat, with a raised crenulate margin. ES- 

 SENTIAL CHARACTER. Corolla: radiate; flowers all her- 

 maphrodite. Fruit : suborbicular, notched at the edge. 

 Involucres: long, undivided. The species are, 



1. Tordyliura Syriacum: Syrian Hartwort. Involucres 

 length of the stamina, club-shaped; stigma circumcised, entire, 

 longer than the umbel. Stalks seldom a foot high, branching 

 out into three divisions, terminating by umbels of white flowers. 

 It is annual, flowering in July. Native of Syria. 



2. Tordylium Officinale; Officinal Hartwort. Involucrets 

 length of the leaves ; leaflets ovate, gashed, crenate. Stem 

 pubescent; root annual; flowers flesh-coloured, with the 

 outer petals very large and radiant. The seeds dried and 

 reduced to powder, or a strong infusion of them, are good 

 to promote obstructed menses, and the necessary evacuations 

 after delivery; they likewise operate by urine, and cure the 

 colic; and being of a warm cordial nature, strengthen the 

 stomach, disperse wind, and procure an appetite. Native of 

 the south of France, Italy, and Sicily : it is very doubtful 

 whether it be indigenous of England, though it is said to have 

 been found at Isleworth, and in the vicinity of London. 



3. Tordyliutn Peregrinum ; Oriental Hartwort. Seeds 

 grooved, wrinkled, plaited; universal involucre one-leafed, 

 subtrifid ; stem smooth, branched. Native of the Levant. 



4. Tordylium Apulium; Apuliun or Small Hartwort. Um- 

 bellets remote; leaves pinnate; pinnas roundish, laciniate. 

 In a garden it rises a foot and half high: flowers white, with 

 broad lanced petals turning inwards so as to appear cordate. 

 The wild plant is more hairy than the cultivated one. Native 

 of Italy, Barbary, and Greece. 



5. Tordylium Maximum; Great Hartwort. Umbels clus- 

 tered, radiate; leaflets lanceolate, gash-serrate; stem rough, 

 with deflexed bristles ; root annual, tapering. Stem erect, 

 three or four feet high, branched, leafy, flexuose, furrowed, 

 rough with minute rigid bristles, bent down, close, hollow 

 within. Native of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, 

 Italy, and England ; in the last it occurs on the north side of 

 the parks at Oxford. 



6. Tordylium Filifolium ; Red Dwarf Hartwort. Umbels 

 clustered, radiate; leaflets lanceolate, gash-serrate; stem 

 rough, with deflexed bristles; leaves unequally pinnate; 

 petals red, one of them very large in the outer florets. 

 Native of Carniola. 



7. Tordylium Secacul; Arabian Hartwort. Umbellets 

 remote ; leaves doubly pinnate ; pinnas gashed, tomentose ; 

 stalks taper, not channelled, rising above two feet and a half 

 high, having a few small hairs scattered over them, with one 

 smaller pinnate leaf at each joint. It flowers in June, and 

 the seeds ripen in August. Native of Syria, especially about 

 Aleppo, where it is known by the name of Secacul. 



Torenia; a genus of the class Didynamia, order Angio- 

 spermia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth one- 

 leafed, tubular, angular, permanent, bifid ; upper lip three- 

 cusped; lower narrower, quite entire. Corolla: one-petalled, 

 ringent; upper lip entire; lower trifid, the middle segment 

 more produced. Stamina: filamenta four; the two upper 

 simple, the two lower two-parted, the lower branchlet shorter 

 and barren ; antheree twin, contiguous by pairs. Pistil: 

 germen oblong ; style filiform, thicker above ; stigma bifid, 

 acute. Pericarp: capsule oblong, two-celled. Seeds: very- 

 many, roundish. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : two- 

 lipped; upper lip three-cusped. Filamenta: the lower with a 

 sterile branchlet. Capsule: two-celled. The species are, 



1. Torenia Asiatica; Smooth Torenia. Smooth : stem creep- 

 ing; leaves ovate, emarginate, on long petioles; flowers larger 

 than in the next species. -Native of India and China. 



2. Torenia Hirsuta; Hairy Torenia Hirsute: stem erect; 

 leaves very short, petioled. The who/e of this plant is hir- 

 sute ; flowers smaller, on one-flowered, axillary, and termi- 

 nating peduncles. Native of the East Indies. 



3. Torenia Cordifolia; Heart-leaved Torenia. Somewhat 

 hairy, erect ; leaves heart-shaped, on short petioles ; stem 

 from six to eight inches high ; branches cruciate, ascending, 

 purplish, a little hairy; leaves serrate, paler beneath, an inch 

 long, and three-quarters of an inch broad ; flowers axillary, 

 solitary, pedicelled, large in proportion to the plant; corolla 

 bluish purple. Native of Coromandel, in moist pasture-lands 

 about Samulcotta, flowering during the cold season. 



Tormentilla ; a genus of the class Icosandria, order Poly- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth one- 

 leafed, flat, eight-cleft; the alternate segments smaller, and 

 more acute. Corolla : petals four, obcordate, flat, spread- 

 ing, inserted by their claws into the calix. Stamina : fila- 

 menta sixteen, awl-shaped, shorter by half than the petals, 

 inserted into the calix ; antherse simple. Pistil: germina 

 eight, small, converging into a head; styles filiform, length 

 of the stamina, inserted into the side of the germen ; stigmas 

 obtuse. Pericarp: none; receptacle of the seeds very small, 

 loaded with seeds, enclosed within the calix. Seeds: eight, 

 roundish, naked. Observe. This genus differs from Poten- 

 tilla in number only : hence the two genera might be com- 

 bined, as in fact they have been by Schrceber and others. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : eight-cleft, inferior. 

 Petals: four. Seeds: roundish, naked, wrinkled, fastened 

 to a small juiceless receptacle. The species are, 



1. Tormentilla Erecta; Common Tormentil. Stem some- 

 what upright, branched; leaves sessile. Root remarkably 

 large and woody, brown on the outside, red within ; flowers 

 bright yellow, on long, simple, solitary, lateral stalks. This 

 is a plant of considerable importance in economy and medi- 

 cine. The root has been long held in great estimation by 

 physicians, as a very useful astringent; and as the resin it 

 contains is very inconsiderable, it seems more particularly 

 adapted to those cases where the heating and stimulating 

 medicines of this class are less proper; as in phthisical diar- 

 rhoeas, diarrhoea cruenta,&c. Dr. Cullen thinks it has been 

 justly commended for every virtue that is competent to astrin- 

 gents ; and says, I myself have had several instances of its 

 virtues in this respect; and particularly have found it, both 

 by itself, and joined with Gentian, cure intermittent fevers ; 

 but it must be given in substance, and in large quantities. 

 Rutty also recommends it in old putrid ulcers, in sores of 

 the mouth, throat, and jaws, and in bleeding gums, and to 

 restore the tone of the stomach: he asserts, that no vegetable 

 is of more efficacy in fluxes, flitor albus, &c. The root may 

 be given in powder from half a drachm to one drachm or 

 more in a dose; but it is more generally administered in 

 decoction. An ounce and half of the powdered root is boiled 

 in three pints of water to a quart, adding, towards the end of 

 the boiling, a drachm of cinnamon: of the strained liquor, 

 sweetened with an ounce of any agreeable syrup, two ounces 

 or more may be taken four or five times a day. Fanners 

 find them very efficacious in the dysenteries or fluxes of cattle. 

 Hill informs us, that it is an excellent astringent; the roots 

 possess the greatest virtues, and may be given either in pow- 

 der or decoction: in the first method, twelve grains is a suffi- 

 cient dose ; in the latter, an ounce and half may be put into 

 three pints of water, and boiled till it comes to a quart, of 

 which a quarter of a pint may be taken three or four times a 

 day. It is likewise a cordial and sudorific, and therefore ex- 

 cellently adapted for feverish complaints attended with purg- 

 ings. It is at all times a good medicine in the small-pox ; but 



