458 Medical Botany, fyc. 



extreme anxieties, and having made some efforts to vomit. For a century, 

 nux-vomica has been known as a powerful medicine, and employed in a 

 vast variety of diseases, with different degrees of success. According to 

 Roxburgh, the seeds are employed in the East in the distillation of spirits, 

 to render them intoxicating. The pulp of the fruit is there eaten by birds. 

 In England, nux-vomica is occasionally used by brewers, to impart an in- 

 toxicating effect to beer. Paralyses and palsy, both partial and general, 

 as well as various other kinds of debility, have recently been cured or 

 alleviated by the alcoholic extract of this fruit. The preparations known 

 as Strychnine and Brucin, have also lately been very much used ; and, as a 

 proof of the importance of the subject in the eyes of Messrs. Stephenson 

 and Churchill, no fewer than fourteen pages are devoted to the medical 

 preparations and applications of this plant. 



No. XIV. for February, contains 



55 to 56. — Fraxinus O'rnus ( O'rnus rotundifolia), Ornate or Manna Ash 

 tree. A low tree, common in Calabria and on the highest and most rocky 

 mountains of Greece. Manna is procured chiefly from this species of 

 ash ; but also from F. excelsior and F. parviflora. The larch, fir, orange, 

 walnut, willow, mulberry, and oak, also produce it. At Briancon, in 

 France, manna is said to be collected from all parts of shrubs; and the in- 

 habitants observe that such summers as produce it in the greatest quantities 

 are very fatal to the plants. Their walnut trees produce annually a consi- 

 derable quantity ; but, if they happen to yield more than ordinary, they 

 usually perish the following winter. From this it appears evident that 

 manna is the extravasated juice of trees, and that they cannot afford to lose 

 it ; and what confirms this idea is, their secreting so much more when the 

 summers are hot. The ancients were accustomed to find it on different 

 species of trees, and therefore inferred that it was wholly foreign to the 

 tree : an error very easily embraced by those who were not aware„that the 

 nutritive juices of all trees are nearly, if not wholly, the same. 



" The medical properties of manna are those of a mild cathartic, for 

 which purpose it was formerly much used in practice. As, however, one 

 to two ounces of this medicine scarcely produce effects on adults, it is 

 now seldom employed alone ; but, combined with senna, neutral salts, and 

 other purgatives, is frequently used to cover their taste. It is an innocent 

 purgative in the hands of mothers, who frequently give it to their children 

 in doses from one drachm to half an ounce, dissolved in water ; but, 

 though mild in its operation, it is apt to produce flatulence and griping." 



Valeriana officinalis. Well known. " In Derbyshire, Valerian is planted 

 in rows 12 in. apart, and the plants 6 in. asunder. Soon after it comes up 

 in the spring, the tops are cut off, to prevent its running to seed, which 

 spoils it. At Michaelmas, the leaves are pulled off and given to cattle, and 

 the roots dug up, and clean washed, and the remaining top is then cut 

 close off, and the thickest part slit down to facilitate their drying, which is 

 effected on a kiln ; after which they must be packed tight, and kept very 

 dry, or they will spoil. The usual produce is about 18 cwt. per acre." — The 

 leaves have a saltish taste, but little or no smell. The roots, particularly 

 the mountain sort, are bitter, subacrid, and of an aromatic and penetrating 

 odour. The smell of the roots is very alluring to cats, and rat-catchers 

 employ it to entice rats, who are also fond of it. 



.Delphinium staphisagria. A native of Provence, Languedoc, and many 

 other parts of the South of Europe. " The Delphinium staphisagria is 

 supposed to be the staphis agria of Dioscorides ; and, from the flower being 

 something like a dolphin's head, the generic term is derived from delphinos, 

 a dolphin. Our climate is too cold for this plant in the open air. Staves- 

 acre seeds produce vomiting, drastic purgation, and inflammation, and are 



