The BR I T.1S.H cH RBA oe 
21 
feribed as different fpecies by authors; but they 
are only accidental varieties. 
The roots of pilewort are cooling and foften- 
ing. They are an excellent remedy in the pain of 
the piles; bruifed, and applied to the part: hence 
they obtained the name. A decoétion of them 
in red wine is alfo excellent in the fame diforder 
when they bleed too much. 
A cataplafm made of the roots and leaves 
bruifed, and laid on fcrophulous tumors, has 
been known to do great fervice: 
Inwardly a ftrong decoction is good in the 
jaundice. 
Having thus feen the form and virtues of this 
GB» Nea 
plant, the reader will be able to pafs a more per- 
fet judgment on that method, which propofes 
making it a fpecies of crowfoot. 
Here is an herb different in form, fhape, and 
virtues, from crowfoot, and diftinguithed by the 
moft obvious and effential parts, on a nearer in- 
fpeétion. Can it be reafonable, therefore, when 
the flower and its cup fhew a-manifett difference, 
we fhould look fora hole in the bottom of the pe- 
tals, to unite this and the crowfoot? Orcan it be 
proper to join together a plant with a cooling root, 
and a whole feries of others which are of a burn- 
ing and cauftick nature? This is confounding 
what Nature has widely feparated; and we fee 
fhe has given marks enough of that diftinétion: 
S XIV. 
ARROWHEAD. 
SAGITTARIA 
PYNHE flower confifts of three ‘petals; and has a three-leaved cup: the feeds ftand ina round | 
naked clufter: the leaves have long footftalks, and are fhaped like the bearded head of an arrow. 
There are two forts of flowers on this plant, male and female. 
The male ftand uppermoft on the 
ftalks. Their general form is alike; but in the centre of the male Mowers there are only threads topp’d 
with buttons: in the female, none of !thefe but the rudiments of the future feeds, with 
dages, a kind of filaments for the reception of the duft from the buttons. 
h their appen- 
Linnzus places this among the Monecia Polyandria, feparating it far from the other naked-feeded 
plants; and joining it with the oak, hazel, and walnut tree. ‘The reafon of this is, that there are 
the different male and female flowers, His explanation of the clas of Monecia is this: It confifts of 
plants, in which he males and females live in the fame boufe, but Sleep in different beds * ; that is, there 
are male and female flowers on the fame plant. 
This is an inftance how unnatural the method of that-author is, 
To our plain courfe, in this part 
marked out by Mr. Ray, the arrowhead is joined to thofe plants to which its dowers and feeds fhew 
it naturally belongs; and the mentioning the feparate flowers in the account is fufficient: 
Dev eS 1 O2N 2 1, 
1. Common Arrowhead: » 
Sagittaria vulgaris. 
The root is large, thick, white, and hung 
with long fibres. 
The firft leaves are long, natrow, and graffy ; 
and thefe, till better known, were miftaken for 
a feparate plant; and called the great-rooted wa- 
ter grafs. 
The following leaves are thofe which charac- 
terife the plant. They are placed.on very Jong 
footftalks, reaching from the bottom to the fur- 
face often where there is a great depth: thefe are 
thick, foft, fpungy, and of an obtufely angulated 
form. The leaves are large, and formed. like the 
bearded head of an arrow, tolerably fharp atthe 
point, and at the two beards. They are of a 
gloffy furface, and fine green, sont tan 
The ftalks rife two or three together from the 
centre of the clufter of leaves: they are naked 
two, three, or four feet high, thick, and fpungy, 
and of a fmooth furface. 
The flowers ftand on long footftalks, - and are 
large and white: they grow three or four from 
the fame place, furrounding the ftalk. . : 
The feeds follow the female, which are the 
* Mares habitant cum feeminibus in eadem domo, fed diverfo' thalamo. 
Ne Ii, 
BR TT dS Ho 3S Pek 1 Bs! 
lower flowers, and: ftand in large roundifh naked 
clufters. SS 
It is common in waters, and flowers in July. 
Allauthors call it Sagit¢asand Sagittaria aquatica; 
but they idly divide.it-into a larger. and finaller 
kind, from the difference of fize in the leaves : 
there is alfo another variety, which they defcribe 
as a diftingt fpecies; under the name of ‘the nar- 
row-leaved finaller arrowhead. All.thefe grow 
promifcuoufly together, and are no more than 
accidental changes but there is onefuiall {pecies, 
the form of whofe leaves and flowers fhews it to 
be diftine: ih 
2. Little Arrowhead, with pointed leaves, and 
es large flowers. en 
Sagitiaria minor foliis acutioribus flore majore. , 
The root confifts of a great clufter of whitith 
fibres. k f « 
The leaves that rife firft are narrow, hort, and 
deeply, ribbed.» “They havé no footftalks, and 
are in fome degree grafly. idve 
The leaves that follow: thefe rife’ in a little 
clufter : their footftalks are, fmall and‘ firm ; and 
they are very narrow, and very fharp-pointed, of 
a pale green, and highly ribbed. 
' 
G The 
