654 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



dom from pain; nor haa it a tendency to con- 

 stipate the bowels, but has rather an opening 

 effect. 



Foxglove (digitalis purpurea). Natural 

 family solancce; didi/namia, angiospermia, of 



Digitalia. 



Linnaeus. This plant, well known by its beau- 

 tiful pyramidal spike of bell-shaped flowers, 

 grows commonly about road sides, hedges, rocks, 

 and quarries, in dry gravelly soils. The root is 

 biennial, the stalk erect, simple, and tapering. 

 The leaves are large, oval, obtusely serrated on 

 the edges, downy, and stand on short footstalks. 

 The flowers grow on a long terminal spike, 

 chiefly on one side : they are large, monopetalous, 

 pendulous, and bell-shaped; purple in one variety, 

 white in another. The capsule is bilocular, and 

 contains many blackish seeds. The flowers 

 appear in June and July. 



The leaves are the medicinal parts of the plant. 

 They have little smell, but a bitter, nauseous 

 taste. In large doses they produce the usual 

 effects of a poisonous narcotic, as vomiting, 

 purging, dimness of sight, giddiness, and delirium, 

 followed by death; in moderate and regulated 

 doses, their medicinal effects are : to diminish 

 the frequency of the pulse, and the irritability of 

 the system; to increase the action of the absor- 

 bents, and the action of the urinary organs. 

 Ray, and the earlier English physicians, were 

 acquainted with many of the effects of this 

 plant; but Withering first discovered its diuretic 

 properties. For some time digitalis was in great 

 vogue for the cure of dropsy and consumption; 

 but being used indiscriminately in all kinds of 

 these complaints, it of course was found to fail 

 in very many cases, and thus suffered a diminu- 

 tion of its high reputation. It is still, however, 

 reckoned a useful and powerful medicine by the 

 discriminating physician, and is employed, in 

 inflammatory affections, to reduce the energy of 

 the heart; in hemon-hage, proceeding from rup- 

 tured vessels of the lungs; in aneurism or enlarge- 

 ment of the arteries; and in dropsical affections 

 of the chest and abdomen. 



Withering directs the leaves to be gathered 

 after the flowering stem has shot up, and about 



the time when the blossoms are coming forth; 

 the leafstalk and midrib are to be rejected, and 

 the leaves are to be dried in the sun or before a 

 fire. When dry they are easily reduceable to a 

 beautiful green powder, the dose of which is 

 from one grain to three or four, in the course of 

 the day. The leaves also yield their virtues to 

 water, forming an infusion; or to spirits, forming 

 a tincture. While using this medicine as a 

 diuretic, copious draughts of water, or any bland 

 fluid, should be taken at same time. In many 

 cases of dropsy, the good effect of digitalis is 

 only available after bleeding, and other means 

 of evacuation have been practised. 



The beauty of this plant has recommended it 

 to the notice of the florist, and it is accordingly 

 often found in the garden parteiTe. It also forms 

 an ornamental and conspicuous object in man}' 

 mountain and woodland scenes, in Scotland and 

 Wales. Among the country people it has received 

 various names. ' In the south of Scotland it is 

 called "bloody fingers;" in the north, "dead 

 man's bells." In Wales it is called "fairies' 

 gloves." Fairies were often called "folks;" 

 hence no doubt the origin of the common name, 

 "folks glove," and not as, misspelt, "fox glove." 



Nux Vomica (slryclinos mix vomica) . Natural 

 family solanecs; pentandria, monogynia. The 



Nux Vomica, 



tree which beai'S the vomic nut, is a native of 

 the East Indies. It is of considerable size, and 

 sends off numerous strong branches, covered 

 with dark gray, smooth bark. The young 

 branches have a knotted, jointed appearance. 

 The leaves arise at the joints in pairs, upon short 

 footstalks, and ai-e broad, oval, and pointed, with 

 from three to five ribs. The flowers terminate 

 the branches in a kind of umbel. The corolla 

 is small, bell-shaped, and of a white colour. 

 The fruit is a round, smooth, large, pulpy berry, 

 externally yellow, and contains within several 

 round depressed seeds, covered with downy, 

 radiated hairs. These seeds afford the substance 

 known under the name of nux vomica; they are 

 flat, round, about an inch broad, and a quarter 

 of an inch thick, with a prominence in the 

 middle; on both sides of a gray colour, covered 

 with a kind of woolly matter, and internally 



