A P I A C E JE. 335 



Medical Uses. — It is principally employed in Europe to relieve flatu- 

 lence and colic in infants, but is seldom or never prescribed in this country. 

 The ancients supposed that the seeds were hypnotic, and the oil has been 

 highly recommended in hiccough. The leaves are sometimes employed for 

 culinary purposes as a substitute for fennel. 



The fruit of another species, A. sowa, is esteemed in India as an ingre- 

 dient in curries, and also as a carminative in flatulent colic, and in infusion 

 as a cordial drink to women after lying in. (Ainslie, Mat. Ind. i., 109.) 



Heracleum. — Linn. 



Calyx 5-toothed. Petals obovate, emarginate, with an inflected lobe ; the outer often 

 radiating and bifid. Fruit flattened at the back, with a broad flat border. Mericarps 

 with very fine ridges ; the 3 dorsal equidistant, the 2 lateral distant from the others, 

 contiguous to the margin. Vittae solitary in the channels, usually 2 on the commissure, 

 all shorter than the fruit, and mostly clavellate. 



A genus of large, coarse, herbaceous plants, with pinnate, 3-parted or 

 lobed leaves, having large sheathing petioles. The umbels are many-rayed, 

 and the involucre usually of a few^ deciduous leaves. The species are 

 chiefly European ; one, however, is a native of North America, and is offi- 

 cinal. 



H. lanatum, Michaux. — Stem sulcate, pubescent, leaves ternately divided, tomentose, 

 pubescent beneath ; the segments petiololate, roundish-cordate, lobed ; fruit oval or obo- 

 vate. 



Michaux, Fl. i. 166 ; Torrey and Gray, Fl. i. 632 ; Rafinesque, Med. 

 Fl. ii. 227. 



Common Names. — Cow Parsnip ; Masterwort. 



Description. — Root large, with a strong unpleasant smell. Stem 4 — 8 feet high, and 

 often an inch or more in diameter at the base. Leaves very large ; ternately divided ; 

 tomentose beneath ; the segments almost petiolate, unequally lobed ; the lobes acuminate 

 and almost glabrous above. The umbels are very large, and spreading, with an involucre 

 of 6 — 10 oblong-lanceolate, deciduous leaflets. Involucel composed of lanceolate leaflets 

 which are narrowed to a long point. Flowers white; petals of the exterior ones unequal, 

 as if unequally 2-cleft, owing to the enlargement of the lobes on each side of the inflexed 

 apex. Fruit nearly half an inch long, often emarginate. Vittae of the channels cla- 

 vate. Commissure usually with 2 vittae. 



It grows in damp places in most of the northern and middle parts of the 

 United States. It is closely allied to the foreign H. spondylium. It was 

 considered as a powerful remedial agent by the Aborigines, but has attracted 

 little attention from physicians, though it is certainly possessed of active 

 qualities. Dr. Bigelow (Mat. Med. 203) is of opinion that it is virose, and 

 should be used with great caution, especially when gathered from a watery 

 situation. The' odour of the leaves and root is unpleasant and rank, and the 

 taste is pungent and acrid. When applied to the skin in a fresh state, the 

 root is capable of producing vesication. 



Medical Uses. — The root in a dried state has been used as a diuretic, 

 expectorant, and antispasmodic. It, as well as the leaves, are employed by em- 

 pirics in a variety of disorders, and to fulfil the most opposite indications. The 

 only account of its powers that can be relied upon, is in a communication to 

 the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1803, by Dr. Orne of Salem, in which 

 he gives his experience with it in epilepsy, and states, that three cases in five 

 in which he administered it, were cured. He gave it in large doses, both in 



