Medical Botany. 16 "7 



naturalised in this country, and flowers from June to September. Its root 

 is large and fleshy, and brown externally, but white within ; the stem is 

 erect, and about 4 or 5 ft. high ; the foliage and stalks are of a bright green ; 

 and the flowers are numerous, and of a greenish white colour. The Lap- 

 landers eat the stalks, roasted in hot ashes, for pectoral disorders ; the leaves, 

 seeds, and root are reckoned good aromatic tonics, taken in doses of three 

 scruples to a dram, three or four times a day. — Melaleuca Cajwputi. A 

 native of the Molucca Islands, and affords, from its leaves, the Cajeput oil of 

 the shops. Its trunk is tolerably erect, and covered with an ash-coloured 

 spongy bark ; the branches are scattered and drooping ; the leaves are alter- 

 nate, not unlike those of the willow, and the flowers are small and white. 

 The smell of the oil is supposed to preserve natural history collections from 

 insects. — Menyanthes trifoliata, Buckbean or Bogbean. " One of the most 

 beautiful of our indigenous plants," and is often found in large beds at the 

 margins of ponds and brooks. The roots are long, creeping, and jointed, 

 from which proceeds a smooth, erect, cylindrical stem, about a foot high, 

 and destitute of leaves ; the leaves are of a bright green, and obovate, and 

 the flowers grow in a loose spike. It is an excellent and cheap tonic, and 

 strengthens digestion, in doses of about 10 grains. — C'helidonium majus. 

 Common Celandine. A perennial, growing wild in the hedges ; rising from 

 a spindle-shaped root, with a round, leafy, branched stem, and flowers of a 

 golden-yellow colour. The juice is a violent acrid poison ; it is used in 

 medicine as a "stimulating aperient, diuretic, and sudorific." — ^elleborus 

 orientalis. The root of this plant is perennial, somewhat fleshy, and black 

 externally, with a tall, round, leafy, purplish stem. The radical leaves are 

 stalked, large, and pedate ; those on the stem are " numerous, on roundish, 

 smooth footstalks; channelled above, sheathing at the base, and slightly 

 hairy below." The roots are acrid, and violently cathartic. 



No. XXII. for October, contains 

 88 to 91. — Tamarindus indica ; Leguminosae. The tamarind tree is 

 common in almost every part of India and the West Indies, and " grows 



most luxuriantly in all the Eastern islands The soil of Java is said to 



bring the fruit to very high perfection ; and those of the dependent island of 

 Madura are reported to be the best." It is considered dangerous by the natives 

 of India to sleep under this tree, and its presence has a deteriorating effect on 

 grass and herbs. Its thick and lofty stem is terminated by spreading branches, 

 bearing tufts of alternate, smooth, bright green leaves, abruptly pinnate; the 

 short lateral branches are terminated by flowers which are in simple clus- 

 ters ; ths calyx is divided into four straw-coloured segments, and the petals 

 are three, rather yellow, and beautifully variegated with red veins ; the 

 seeds are " roundish, somewhat angular, flattened, hard, polished, with a 

 central circumscribed disk at each side, and lodged in a quantity of a soft 



pulp The fruit is cooling and laxative; but while it gratefully allays 



the thirst of ardent fever, it must be taken in large quantities to insure the 

 latter effect, and is then apt to produce flatulence." The stones of the 

 fruit are prescribed by the physicians in dysenteric complaints, and for me- 

 norrhagia. It is very much adulterated in commerce, and the deceit is very 

 difficult to find out. — CiciJta virosa ; Umbelliferse. This plant, commonly 

 called the Long-leaved Water Hemlock, is " by far the most active of the 

 poisonous plants of Great Britain," but it is, fortunately, rather scarce. 

 The root is perennial, the stem is very large, hollow, leafy, and branched ; 

 and the leaves are biternate, and of a bright green colour ; the flowers are 

 in large, many-rayed umbels, and are very small. It " is supposed by Haller 

 and many others, to have yielded the celebrated Athenian poison." — 

 Giiaiaciim officinale. " The tree rises to the height of 30 or 40 ft., and is 

 near a foot in the diameter of its trunk, with numerous, divaricated, knotty 

 branches, leafy at the ends. The bark is very smooth, variegated with green 



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