GROMWELL. 365 



naked ; tube short ; limb divided into five obtuse segments. 

 The stamens are five, with oblong anthers, included in the tube. 

 The germen is four-parted, with a filiform style, and a biiid, 

 obtuse stigma. The fruit consists of four, hard, polished, whitish 

 brown nuts, (seldom more than two or three coming to ma- 

 turity,) seated in the persistent calyx. Plate 22, fig. 1, (a) 

 calyx ; (b) corolla opened ; (c) pistil ; (d) fruit. 



Common Gromwell is frequent in dry and uncultivated 

 places, especially in gravelly and calcareous soil. It flowers in 

 May and June. 



The generic name is formed from ?ahs, a stone, and crKzpij.a,, 

 a seed, on account of the stony hardness of the nuts *. In like 

 manner Gromwell is derived from the Celtic graun, a seed, and 

 mil, a stone. It is also called Greymill and Grey Millet. 



Qualities. — The nuts have no smell and merely a farina- 

 ceous taste. Grew-j- states that the stony shells produce effer- 

 vescence in powerful acids, but other observers have not con- 

 firmed this. The shells afford a considerable portion of 

 pure silica, sulphate of lime and iron. The seeds contain a 

 small quantity of oily matter, but in other respects nearly resem- 

 ble the cereal grains, for which they have even been proposed 

 as a substitute. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — The lithontriptic virtues 

 of these nuts appear to have been deduced from the fallacious 

 doctrine of signatures ; their stony consistence being accounted 

 typical of their efficacy as dissolvents of stone in the human 

 bladder . Modern writers, though they attach no credit to 

 these illusory qualities, consider the seeds as diuretic and useful 

 in emulsion, in cases where there is strangury or heat of urine, 

 gonorrhoea, &c. Externally the decoction of the seeds or roots, 

 applied hot, is recommended for relieving pain in the urinary 

 and genital organs, and in the sequel of difficult or painful la- 

 bours. According to Hallerj; the whole herb is narcotic. 



* PUay considered them as one of the greatest curiosities in the vegetable 

 world : — '• Nee quicquam inter herbas majore quidem miraculo aspexi. 

 Tantus est decor velut aiirificum arte alternis interfolia candicantibus 

 mai'garitis ; tam exquisita difficultas lapidis ex herba nascentis." — His!, lib. 

 xxvii. c. 11. 



+ Mixt. corp. p. 22. 



X Hist. Stirp. Helv. n. 595. 



