572 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



gent, and a decoction of it, with salt, will coagulate milk as readily as rennet. 

 The leaves and seeds of IT. membranacea are considered, in Egypt, to be 

 emmenagogue and aphrodisiac. A native species, IT. pumila, which is quite 

 smooth, is said to be an excellent application to inflamed parts, and to relieve 

 the eruption caused by the Rhus; its properties have not been fully investi- 

 gated, and it deserves attention. Martius states ( Travels, ii. 94), that several 

 species of Bcehmeria, and more especially B. caudata, are employed in 

 Brazil, with much success, in hemorrhoidal tumours ; a decoction of the leaves 

 is used as a bath or fomentation. In the same country an extract of Pilea 

 muscosa is regarded as an efficacious remedy in dysuria. 



Several species of Parietaria have attracted notice : the P. officinalis, of 

 Europe, is mentioned by Dioscorides, as beneficial in gout, and has been 

 highly spoken of by many writers as very efficacious in diseases of the uri- 

 nary organs, from its diuretic qualities; these are also to be remarked in P. 

 erecta and P. diffusa ; they are said to contain more sulphur than any other 

 plants. (Planche, Jour, de Pharm. viii. 367.) 



Order 93.— CANNABINACEiE.— Lindley. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious. Male : in racemes or panicles. Calyx herbaceous, 

 scaly, imbricated. Stamens few, opposite the sepals ; filaments filiform ; anthers termi- 

 nal, 2-celled, with a longitudinal dehiscence. Female : in spikes or cones. Sepals single, 

 covering the ovary. Ovary free, 1-celled ; ovule solitary, pendulous, campylotropal ; stig- 

 mas 2, sessile, subulate. Fruit indehiscent, with a solitary, suspended seed. Exalbumi- 

 nous ; embryo hooked or spirally coiled ; radicle superior. 



A small order of herbaceous, rough-stemmed plants, with a watery juice, 

 furnished with alternate-lobed, stipulate leaves, and small inconspicuous 

 flowers. They were separated from the Urticacea? on account of their sus- 

 pended seeds, coiled embryo, and want of albumen. They are found in the 

 temperate parts of the old hemisphere, and are cultivated in many parts of the 

 world. 



Cannabis. — Tournefort. 



Flowers dioecious. Male : flowers racemose. Calyx 5-parted, imbricated. Stamens 5, 

 anthers large, pendulous. Female : flowers in spikes. Sepal acuminate, rolled round the 

 ovary. Ovary roundish, with a single pendulous ovule, and 2 long filiform, glandular stigmas. 

 Fruit ovate, 1-seeded ; embryo coiled up, with the radicle parallel with the cotyledons. 



There appears to be but one species of this genus, the saliva, or Common 

 Hemp, the indica differing from it rather in physical qualities than in botani- 

 cal characters. Pereira states that he carefully compared specimens of the 

 latter with those of the former, contained in the Linnsean Herbarium, and 

 found the male plants identical ; but that in C. indica the female flowers were 

 more crowded than in those of the common hemp ; he says in addition, that 

 Mr. Anderson, of Chelsea Garden, has pointed out a distinguishing character- 

 istic, that the O. indica branches from the ground, whilst the C. saliva does 

 not throw out branches for some feet in height ; and also that the seed of the 

 former is smaller and rounder. In warm countries, also, there is an exuda- 

 tion of a rosin which does not occur in Europe. These differences are evi- 

 dently those of locality, cultivation, &c.,and cannot be considered as specific. 



