810 otlpspbb'b completib herbal. 



creetly used, this root is poisonous. A single grain onl^ 

 being swallowed by a person in health, by way of exj>en- 

 ment, produced heat in the stomach, and soon after flush- 

 ing heats in various parts of the body, with frequent shi- 

 verin^'s, which were followed by colicky pains, afterwhich 

 an itching in the loins and urinary passages was perceived, 

 and presently there came a continued inclination to make 

 water, with a tremour, pain in the head, great thirst, a 

 very quick pulse, and other disagreeable symptoms. Not- 

 withstanding these symptoms, it is, when properly prepar- 

 ed, a safe, but powerful medicine ; the best way of doing 

 this is to make it into a kind of syrup, by digesting an 

 ounce of the roots, sliced thin, in a pint of white-wine 

 vinegar, over a gentle fire, for the space of forty-eight 

 hours, and then mixing two pounds of honey with the 

 strained liquor, and letting it boil gently afterwards till it 

 comes to a proper consistence. This syrup is agreeably 

 acid, gently bites the tongue, is moderately astringent, and 

 excellent for cleansing the tongue from mucus. In an in- 

 creased dose, it vomits, and sometimes purges, but its most 

 eommon operation is by urine, for which it is a remarka- 

 bly powerful medicine. The dose at first should be but 

 imall, half a tea-spoonfnl twice or three times a day is 

 enough to begin with, and the quantity may afterwards be 

 gradually increased, as the stomach will bear it, or the case 

 may require. It has been given with the most astonish- 

 ing success in dropsies and tertian agues ; and it frequent- 

 ly succeeds as an expectorant, when all other means fail. 



SAFFRON (WILD,) or SAFFIjOW^K—C Carthamut 

 Tinctorius,) 



Descrip. — This is an annual plant, having a small woody 

 root which does not run deep in the earth. The lower leaves 

 are pretty broad, long, and round-pointed; the stalk grows 

 to be two or three feet high, cornered, and without prick- 

 les, branching into several divisions towards the top ; be- 

 set with lesser leaves an inch broad, and two inches long, 



inted, and having a few, not very hard, prickles grow- 

 ng on them. The nowers stand on the heads of the branch- 

 es, consisting of round scaly heads, having a few spinula 

 CTowing out of them, out of the middle of which spring 

 tiirums of a Saflfron -coloured fistular flowers, succeeded by 

 whit^comered, longish seed, narrow at one end. 



Flace, — It is sown in fields and gardens. 



DO 



ini 



