104 MALVACEAE. 



Habitat. — A native of Europe, soapwort has escaped from gardens and 

 is often met with fully established in waste places and along roadsides. 



Part Used. — The root — not official. 



Constituents. — Soapwort has a sweetish, glutinous, and somewhat bitter 

 taste, followed by a certain degree of acrimony. Its only important con- 

 stituent is saponin, which causes decoctions of the root, upon agitation, to 

 produce a saponaceous froth. 



Preparations. — There are none. It may be employed in decoction. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — A hundred years or more ago soapwort 

 was believed to be a valuable alterative, and was employed in syphilis, 

 gout, rheumatism, etc., with effects similar to those attributed to sarsa- 

 parilla. Little has been added to our knowledge of the plant since then. 

 As it, in common with quillaia (soap-bark), contains saponin, it might rea- 

 sonably be employed for the same purposes as the latter. That saponin, 

 the active principle of these plants, is physiologically active is beyond 

 question, but its therapeutic effects require further investigation. 



SILENE.— Catch Fly. 



SiSene Virginica Linne. — Fire Pink, Catch Fly. 



Description. — Calyx : sepals united, forming an oblong-cylindrical 

 tube, 5-toothed at the apex, viscid-pubescent. Corolla : petals 5, oblong, 

 limb 2-cleft, 1 inch long. Stamens 10, longer than the calyx. Styles 3, 

 rarely 4. Capsule 1-celled, 3- or G-toothed at the apex, many-seeded. 



A viscid -pubescent perennial herb, 1 to 2 feet high. Leaves thin, the 

 lower spatulate, upper oblong-lanceolate. Flowers few, large, deep crim- 

 son, peduncled, in loose cymes, appearing from June to August. 



Habitat. — In rich, open woods from Canada to Georgia and westward to 

 the Mississippi. Bare in New York and New England. 



Part Used. — The root — not official. 



Constituents. — Unknown. 



Preparations. — There are none. It has been used in decoction. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — From Barton we learn that this plant 

 was used in Virginia as an anthelmintic, but he seems to have had no 

 personal experience with it ; and since his time we have no record of ex- 

 periments to test its efficacy. 



MALVACE/E. 



Character of the Order. — Herbs or shrubs, with alternate, stipulate, pal- 

 mately veined leaves and regular flowers. Sepals 5, united at the base, 

 valvate in the bud, persistent, often bearing an involucre of bracts outside, 

 forming a kind of external calyx. Petals 5, convolute in the bud, often large 

 and showy. Stamens indefinite, hypogynous ; filaments coherent, forming 



