190 MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



fixed pains, &c. Although this drug was seldom given alone, yet 

 we find it was very generally used, and an ingredient in many com- 

 pounds which were formerly held in very great repute. Hoffman, 

 however, entertained an opinion, that Scammony was a dangerous 

 medicine ; " Ego nunquam in praxi mea in usu habui, nee in pos- 

 terum habebo ; me semper ab istiusmodi venenis colliquativis absti- 

 nens." HofY. in Schrod. p. 543. But since Boerhaave's time it 

 has been considered as a safe though stimulating cathartic, and 

 frequently prescribed uncombined with any other substance, yet 

 neither producing tormina nor hypercatharsis. Like other resinous 

 purgatives it is uncertain in its operation, which may be occasioned 

 by the intestines being more or less defended from the action of 

 these stimulants, by the quantity of natural mucus with which they 

 are covered. 



2. C. Jalapa. Jalap Bindweed. The root is perennial, large, 

 ponderous, abounding with a milky juice, ot an irregular oval form, 

 and blackish colour j the stalks are numerous, shrubby, slender, 

 twisted, striated, risiug above ten feet high, and twining for support 

 round the neighbouring plants; the leaves are various, generally 

 more or less heart-shaped, but often angular, or oblong and point- 

 ed ; they are smooth, of a bright green colour, and stand alternate- 

 ly upon long footstalks; the flowers are produced from short 

 branches, sending off two peduncles, each of which supports a sin- 

 gle flower ; this is large, bell-shaped, entire, plicated, externally 

 of a reddish colour, but of a dark purple within j the calyx consists 

 of five oval leaves, these are concave, somewhat indented at their 

 points, and of a pale green colour ; the filaments are five, slender, 

 short, and the antherae large, and yellow ; the style is shorter than 

 the stamina ; the stigma is round, and the germen oval. It is a 

 native of South America, and flowers in August and Septem- 

 ber. The plant was introduced into the royal garden at Kew 

 ill 1778, by Monsieur Thouin, and under the direction of Mr. 

 Aiton it acquired great vigour and luxuriance, extending its stalks 

 fifteen feet in length ; and, by means of slips obtained from it, two 

 healthy young plants have since been produced : this circumstance 

 is the more fortunate, as the parent plant lately died. Botanists 

 have diflv red much respecting the officinal Jalap plant j Linnaeus 

 following Clusius, Plumier, Tournefort, and others, first referred it 

 to the Mirabilis, but in the second edition of his Materia Medica 



