DICENTRA. 89 



Medical Properties and Uses. — In medicinal doses celandine is diapho- 

 retic, diuretic, expectorant, and pm-gative ; in over-doses it is an acrid nar- 

 cotic poison, producing not only excessive purgation but great cerebral 

 disturbance. It bears, therefore, a close analogy in its action to sangui- 

 naria. In both, the acrid-proi^erties are much more apparent than the nar- 

 cotic, so that fatal effects may be produced before narcotic symptoms be- 

 come very evident. In this respect they are in marked contrast with the 

 poppy, a member of the same order of plants, whose stimulating properties 

 are of secondary importance compared with its narcotic influence. 



Celandine is a remedy which has come down to us from the fathers of 

 medicine, and is interesting chiefly on account of its historical associations, 

 for it is seldom employed at the present day. Its action, as outlined above, 

 suffices to indicate the classes of cases to which it is apphcable, but a cata- 

 logue of the diseases in which it has been employed would be formidable. 

 As a drastic pm-gative it was formerly used in dropsy ; and it was espe- 

 cially esteemed in jaundice, an idea which, as Woodville remarks, probably 

 had its origin in the absurd doctrine of signatures, though there can be 

 little doubt that it might, through its stimulant properties, be of occasional 

 benefit in this condition. The fresh juice has been used as a topical ap- 

 plication to corns and warts and in the squamous stages of various skin. 

 diseases. It requires to be employed with caution, for it is extremely irri- 

 tating. 



FUMARIACE/E. 



Character of the Order. — Herbs with brittle stems, watery juice, alter- 

 nate, dissected, exstipulate leaves, and irregular, unsymmetrical flowers. 

 Sepals 2, deciduous. Petals 4, cruciate, irregular, one or two of them saccate 

 or spurred, and the two inner ones often cohering at the apex so as to in- 

 clude the anthers and stigma. Stamens 6, in two sets of three each, placed 

 opposite the larger petals, hypogynous, the filaments often united ; the 

 middle anther of each set 2-celled, the outer ones l-ceUed. Ovary 1-celled ; 

 style fihform ; stigma with 2 or more points. Fruit a 1-celled pod, either 

 1-seeded and indehiscent or several-seeded with two parietal jDlacentpe. 



An unimportant though interesting order of plants, closely alhed to 

 the jMpaver'acece in general structure, but having watery instead of milky 

 juice. There are but three strictly North American genera, namely, Adlu- 

 mia, Corydalis, and Diceutra. Fumaria, though flourishing here without 

 cultivation, is not indigenous, but has been introduced from Eiirope. 



DICENTRA. 



Dicentra Canadensis De Candolle (Corydalis formosa Pursh). — 

 Squirrel Corn, lurJcey Corn. 



Description. — Calyx: sepals 2, small and scale-like, deciduous. Corolla : 



