0NAGRACEJ1. 303 



Common Names. — Loosestrife, Purple Willow Herb. 

 Foreign Names. — Lisimaque rouge, Fr. ; Salicaria, It. ; Braune Weide- 

 rich, Ger. 



Description. — Root perennial, woody, sending up several erect, leafy, slender, reddish 

 stems, three or four feet high, quadrangular or even hexangular near the root. The 

 leaves are mostly opposite, sessile, lanceolate, pointed, entire, the upper ones resembling 

 bracts. The flowers are in terminal spikes, in numerous axillary whorls, six in each, of 

 a purplish colour, inodorous. The calyx is inferior, cylindrical, striated, downy or hairy, 

 with twelve marginal teeth, six of which are long, subulate, erect, and reddish ; the others 

 minute, ovate, concave, and inflected. The petals are six, elliptic-oblong, equal, waved. 

 The stamens are twelve, filiform, the six alternate ones shorter, bearing roundish anthers. 

 The ovary is ovate-oblong, with a simple style and capitate stigma. The capsule is 

 small, elliptical, 2-eelled, and enclosed in the tube of the calyx. 



This plant is found in various parts of the world, being an inhabitant of 

 Europe, Asia, North America, and New Holland, growing in wet situations. 

 It is inodorous, but has a herbaceous, mucilaginous, somewhat astringent 

 taste. It has not been analyzed, but probably contains tannin and much 

 mucilage. 



Medical Properties. — It is a demulcent and astringent, and was at one time 

 much celebrated as a remedy in diarrhoea and dysentery, for which it is even 

 now a highly popular domestic medicine in Ireland. Many German practi- 

 tioners likewise speak of it in high terms in bowel diseases, but of late years 

 it is seldom prescribed ; and in this country it is never administered in regu- 

 lar practice, though sometimes employed as a domestic remedy, especially 

 among our German population. It is given in powder, in drachm doses, 

 twice or three times a day ; but more generally in decoction, made by boiling 

 an ounce of the root in a pint of water, of which the dose is a fluid ounce to 

 twice that quantity, to be repeated as occasion may require. 



Order 50.— ONAGRACEiE.— Jussieu. 



Calyx adherent to the ovary, and usually produced beyond it into a tube. Petals usu- 

 ally 4, and the stamens as many or twice as many, inserted into the throat of the calyx. 

 Ovary commonly 4-celled. Styles united. Stigmas 4, or united into one. Fruit gene- 

 rally capsular. 



An order of herbaceous, rarely shrubby plants, with alternate or opposite 

 leaves, not dotted nor furnished with. stipules ; the flowers are generally 

 showy. The larger number of the species are peculiar to the American 

 continent, especially on the western side of it. They afford many ornamen- 

 tal plants much prized by horticulturists. Their medical properties are very 

 little known, but, as far as ascertained, are demulcent and emollient. 



(Enothera. — Limi. 



Tube of the calyx prolonged beyond the ovary, deciduous. Segments 4, reflexed. 

 Petals 4, equal, mostly obcordate, obovate. Stamens 8, nearly equal or unequal. Ovary 

 4-celled, with numerous horizontal or ascending ovules. Stigma 4-lobed or capitate. 

 Capsule various in form, 4-valved, many-seeded. 



A very extensive genus, of which upwards of sixty species are indigenous 

 to North America. They are sometimes suffrutescent, with axillary or ter- 

 minal flowers, which in some species open only in the evening or at night. 

 The roots of some of them are edible, and resemble in taste the Salsafy. 



