LILIACE^E. (J47 



their exact medicinal powers, but they were in use among the Indians, and 

 are now much employed in empirical practice, and it is said, with some 

 success. The species appear to act very similarly and are stated to be 

 astringent, tonic, and alterative. They have been popularly prescribed in 

 various hemorrhagic discharges, and were much esteemed by the Indians in 

 those peculiar to the female sex. Externally they have been employed as a 

 cataplasm to indolent tumours, ill-conditioned ulcers, &c. Riddell (Synojj. 

 Fl. West. St. 92) says that they are administered as a preparatory to par- 

 turition, and are known under the name of Birthwort. Lindley (Fl. Med. 

 588), on the authority of De Candolle, asserts that the roots are violently 

 emetic, and the berries suspicious. These plants deserve the attention of the 

 profession, for if they possess the virtues attributed to them, they are worthy 

 of admission into the officinal lists of the Materia Medica. 



Order 115.— LILIACEiE.— De Candolle. 



Flowers hermaphrodite. Calyx and corolla coloured alike, regular or nearly so, some- 

 times cohering into a tube. Stamens 6, inserted on the sepals and petals. Anthers in- 

 trorse. Ovary free, 3-celled, many-seeded ; style 1 ; stigma 3-lobed or simple ; ovules 

 anatropal or amphitropal. Fruit succulent, or dry and capsular, 3-celled. Seeds imbri- 

 cated, in 1 to 2 rows. 



A very extensive order of herbs, shrubs, or trees, with various kinds of 

 roots. The leaves are usually narrow, with parallel veins, in a ihw cases 

 expanded into a broad lamina with diverging veins, never articulated to the 

 stem. There is much difference of opinion among the most eminent botani- 

 cal authorities, with respect to the limits of this order, some dividing it into 

 several of equal value, whilst others regard these groups merely as sections. 

 This latter view has been adopted in the present instance, as the most con- 

 venient, for although the differences of structure in the various tribes are un- 

 doubtedly great, they have not been sufficiently studied, to ascertain their 

 true value as foundations for distinct orders. 



Tribe 1. Tulipe,e. 



Erythronium. — Linn. 



Segments of the perianth reflexed, each alternate one with 2 tubercles at base. Sta- 

 mens 6, inserted on the base of perianth, shorter than the style. Style furrowed, trian- 

 gular ; stigma either 3-cornered, or with 3 spreading, channelled plates. Capsule turbi- 

 nate-globose, erect, with the valves bearing the placentae. 



A small genus of herbaceous, bulbous-rooted plants, peculiar to Europe, 

 Northern Asia, and North America, whose name is founded on the leaves 

 being marked with red spots. They are of very little medicinal importance, 

 but as one of them is officinal in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia, they require a 

 brief notice. 



E. americanum, Ker. — Corm situated deep in the ground, brown externally, white 

 within. Stem naked, slender. Leaves 2, nearly equal, lanceolate, veinless, of a dark 

 brownish-green, shining, marked with irregular spots of dark-brown above. Flower soli- 

 tary, drooping. Sepals and petals lanceolate, yellow ; sepals often reddish on the out- 

 side ; petals with an obscure tooth on each side near the base. Capsule oblong-obo- 

 vate. 



