STAVESACRE. 521 



with purple, and attaining the height of one or two feet. The 

 leaves are large, alternate, glabrous, green, often spotted with 

 brown, palmated with from five to seven deep, ovate-lanceolate 

 lobes, gradually smaller towards the top of the stem, supported 

 on long downy footstalks. The flowers are light blue or 

 purplish, disposed in a lax, terminal, spike-like raceme ; each 

 flower supported on a pedicel about twice as long as itself. The 

 calyx is petaloid, the upper sepal extended behind into a long 

 tubular spur. The corolla consists of four petals, placed in 

 front of the sepals, the two upper narrow, small, extended at 

 the base into spurs like the sepal in which they are enclosed ; 

 the two lower and outer whitish, rounded, and plaited at the 

 margins. The filaments are numerous, subula f e, crowned with 

 oblong yellow anthers. The germens are three, tapering, 

 pointed, downy, with filiform styles terminated by simple 

 stigmas. The capsules are three, ovate-oblong, tapering, pointed, 

 one-celled, one-valved, containing several seeds, which are 

 large, brown, angular, plano-convex at the back, keeled in 

 front, and rough all over with excavated points. Plate 42, 

 fig. 2. (a) corolla; (b) stamens. 



This plant grows in shady places in Italy, the south of 

 France, and in other parts of southern Europe ; flowering from 

 May to August. It was cultivated in England by Gerard in 

 1596. 



The generic name is derived from &xp»v, a dolphin t on 

 account of the fancied resemblance between the nectary of the 

 flower and the figure of the dolphin. The description given 

 by Dioscorides* of his o-TccQuroiypiot, •(•, agrees in most particulars 

 with this plant. It is the Staphis and Astaphis agria of Pliny. 

 It has also been called <pOs^o-/.oxKov t herba pedicularis, or Louse' 

 wort, a synonyme which is retained in most of the European 

 languages. 



Qualities. — The seeds are the only part of this plant employed in 

 medicine ; they are rough, of a blackish grey colour, trigonal, or tetra- 

 gonal in form, and contain a yellowish substance of an oleaginous nature. 

 They have a slight disagreeable odour, and a bitter, acrid, and hot taste ; 



* Mat. Med. lib. iv. c 15G. 



f From <rrcc<pis, a dried raisin, aygix, wild, in allusion to the dry wrinkled 

 seed. Hence also the English name Stauesacre. 



VOL. II, Z 



