June 9, 1S63. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



417 



ing up from the roots in the spring. In its young state it closely 

 resembles the garden Chrysanthemum, and belongs to the same 

 Linnoean class and order — Syngenesia superflua ; natural order, 

 Compositee. Leaves wing-cleft, flat, cottony underneath. Bunches 

 single. Florets of the circumference fire. Receptacle naked. 



Sir. Shepheard, Bettystown House, Drogheda, says : Take 

 three or four large roots, fibrous roots included, and the stems 

 and leaves if in season — that is, the roots only in winter, and the 

 whole plant, roots, stem, and leaTes, in the spring and sum- 

 mer. The whole, when cut up into very small pieces, should be 

 equal to a good large handful, and boiled in a quart of beer, 

 three cupfuls to be taken three times a-day (we suppose this 

 should be read, a cupful to be taken three times a-day), morn- 

 ing, noon, and nieht. 



In hunting up the medicinal history of this plant, we find in 

 Withering' a arrangement of British plants that a drachm of the 

 powdered leaves was given four times a-day by a Dr. Home to a 

 woman who had been affected with hysteric fits for many years. 

 The fits ceased in a few days. In this patient assafeetida and 

 ether has been given to no purpose. The powdered roots have 

 been recently prescribed with success in epilepsy on the con- 

 tinent ; and he soys, notwithstanding these favourable reports, 

 Mugwort is rarely employed in England, and has been rejected 

 by the London College. Worawood and Southernwood, which, 

 are highly aromatic and medicinal plants, belong to the same 

 genus — Artemisia, and may lead many to a discovery of the 

 Mugwort, which grows plentifully in waste places, waysides, and 

 amongst rubbish. — (Irish Farmers' Gazette.') 



ACACIA SQUAMATA (Scaly Acacia.) 



2fat. ord., Legurninosa?. Linn., Polygamia Morjcecia. — A 

 remarkable erect-growing shrub, branched, and having the 

 appearance of being leafless. The branches are slender, terete, 

 flexuose, somewhat glaucous. The leaves are of the form and 

 thickness of the branches, stiff, slightly divergent, about an inch 

 long, bearing in their axils a scaly bud. The branches thus 

 appear to consist of a series of terminal buds seated in the forks 

 of dichotomous branches ; the apex of the leaves is slightly 



recurved and mucronate. The racemes are short, and bear two 

 or three globular heads of deep yellow flowers; these sprin" 

 from the axils of the leaves, and issue from the bud of boat- 

 shaped brown membranous scales. This interesting plant was 

 introduced by Mr. Drummond, from the Swan River, and was 

 first raised and blossomed by Messrs. Low in 1848. Like the 

 other Acacias, it blooms in early spring. — {Gardeners' Magazine 

 of Botany.) 



