ASTERACEiE. 409 



curative powers in these diseases is very contradictory, though it is evident, 

 from all the accounts, that it possesses some influence over the nervous sys- 

 tem, and may be advantageously employed in certain cases. In Russia it is 

 a popular remedy in nyctalopia, and is said to cure it in a few days. (Jour. 

 Litt. Strang.) There is also a popular belief in the North of Europe that it 

 is very beneficial in wounds and contusions of the head, and the disordered 

 condition of the system consequent on these accidents, and hence it has been 

 termed Panacea lapsorum. To conclude, the German practitioners are en- 

 thusiastic in favour of the virtues of the Arnica in almost every disease where 

 there is debility, torpor, or inactivity of function, and although it is by no 

 means as powerful an agent as they represent it, it is one that deserves more 

 notice than it has received in this country, where it is seldom prescribed or 

 even known. 



It is given in powder, in doses of five to ten grains, but more generally in 

 infusion, made with half an ounce to a pint of water, of which half an ounce 

 to an ounce may be administered at a time. The extract is also a good form of 

 exhibition, to be given in divided doses to about the extent of a drachm a 

 day. (See Dunglison, Therap. \. 387.) 



Pommier says that the flowers are apt to become black in the process of 

 drying, when they exhale an ammoniacal smell, and afterwards that of To- 

 bacco, and that they, as well as the leaves, are used by the peasants of the 

 Pyrenees as a substitute for that article, whence the name of Tabac des 

 Vosges. A full account of this remedy has been given by Dr. Wood. (Am. 

 Med. Cyclop, ii. 261.) 



The A. scorpioides (Aronicum) was known to the ancients, and is sup- 

 posed by Merat and De Lens to be the plant designated by Pliny under the 

 name of Cammaron, but Linnseus thought that this epithet applied to an Aco- 

 nitum, which he called Cammarmn. Some of the North American species 

 approach very closely to the A. montana in their characters, as the A. an- 

 gustifolia and C. hamissionis, both of which were considered by Hooker (Fl. 

 Am. Bor. i. 330) to be varieties of it. It is probable that they as well as the 

 A. nudicaule may be used as substitutes for the European plant. 



Tribe 4. Cynare^e. — Style of the perfect flowers nodose, thickened, and often penicil- 

 late at the summit; the stigmatic lines not prominent, reaching to and confluent at the 

 summit of the externally puberulent branches. 



Cnicus. — Vaillant. 



Heads many-flowered ; the ray -flowers sterile, slender, nearly equal to the disk. Scales 

 of the ovoid involucre coriaceous, appressed, produced into a long and rigid pinnated spi- 

 nose appendage. Receptacle densely clothed with capillary bristles. Achenia terete, 

 smooth, strongly striate, with a large lateral basilar areola. Pappus triple, the outer 

 being the horny crenated margin of the fruit; the middle one of 10 long stiff hairs; the 

 inner of the same number of short bristles. 



This genus contains but a single species, which has been successively con- 

 sidered as a Carduus and Centaurea. It is an annual, somewhat woody, 

 branching herb, with amplexicaul and somewhat decurrent undivided, sub- 

 pinnatifid leaves, and yellow flowers in bracteate heads. 



C, penedictus, Linn.^- The only species. 



Linn. (Centaurea), Sp. PI. 1296 ; Woodville, i. t. 14 ; Stephenson and 

 Churchill, iii. 128. 



Common i\toe,— Blessed Thistle, 



