31 6 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1717. 



Virginiensibus nostratibus dicta, lobatis umbelliferae foliis, Americana. Ejusd. 

 Almag. 396. 



2. Aralia caiile folioso laevi, D. Sarrazin. Aralia Canadensis. Inst. Rei 

 Herb. 300. 



3. Aralia caiile folioso et hispido D. Sarrazin. 



4. Aralia arborescens spinosa, D. Vaillant. Angelica arborescens, spinosa, 

 sen arbor indica, fraxini folio, cortice spinoso Raii Hist. 2. 1798. Christopho- 

 riana arbor aculeata Virginiensis Pluk. Almag. 98, tab. 20. 



All the species of these two genera, except the last of each of them, are 

 common in Canada, whence Mr. Sarrazin, first sent them to the royal garden 

 in 1700. 



The inhabitants of that colony, and those of Virginia, call the first species 

 of aralia by the name of sarsaparilla, because its roots have almost the same 

 figure and virtues. 



Mr. Sarrazin writes, that he had a patient who had been cured of an anasarca, 

 about two years before, by the use of a drink, made of these roots. He assures 

 us also that the roots of the second species, well boiled and applied by way of 

 cataplasm, are very excellent for curing old ulcers; as also the decoction of 

 them, with which they bathe and syringe the wounds. He does not at all 

 doubt, but the virtues of the third species are the same with those of the second. 



Its roots creep, and send forth stalks, which rise commonly to the height of 

 a foot and half, and sometimes to 2 feet, the bottom part of them is rough, 

 with reddish, stiffs, and prickly hairs. These stalks are set from the bottom 

 almost to the top, which are divided successively into several naked branches 

 charged with umbels, with branched alternate leaves, almost like those of poda- 

 graria hirsuta angelicae folio et odore D. Vaillant; which plant is graved in the 

 2d tome of Boccone's Museum, by the name of cerefolium rugoso angelicae 

 folio, aromaticum, tab. 19, and in Rivinus by that of myrrhis folio podagrariae. 



See the account of the Chinese gin-seng, in Philos Trans. Ann. 1713.* 



Extract of a Letter from Mr. Edtvard Berkeley at Naples , giving several curious 

 Observations and Remarks on the Eruptions of Fire and Smoke from Mount 

 Vesuvius, Communicated by Dr. John j^rbuthnot, M. D. and R. S. S. 

 N° 354, p. 708. 



April 17, 1717, with much diflficulty I reached the top of Mount Vesuvius, 

 in which I saw a vast aperture full of smoke, which hindered the seeing its 

 depth and figure. I heard within that horrid gulph certain odd sounds, which 

 seemed to proceed from the bowels of the mountain, a sort of murmuring, 



♦ Page 56 of this (6th) voU of these Abridgments. 



