32 Bigelow on the Medical Botany of Ohio. [Nov. 



Sp. 168. SlSYRINCHIUM BERMUDIANUM. Linn. 



Com. name — Blue-eyed Grass, Lily Grass, Physic Grass, 

 Scurvy Grass. Low, slender, perennial; flowers small delicate 

 blue, changing to purplish 4 — 6 opening in succession. — June, 

 August. 



Used by Thompsonians as a purgative. Root, yellow; acrid, 

 decoction purgative. — (Rafinesque, 2d. 264.) 



Order LVII.— DIOSCOREACEiE. (Yam Family.) 

 Sp. 169. Dioscorea villosa. Linn. 



Com. name — Wild Yam Root. Plant herbaceous, twining, 

 slender vine; flowers, very small, pale greenish yellow- — July. 



"An infusion of the roots, is unquestionably a- valuable 

 remedy in bilious colic. An ounce of the powdered root is to 

 be boiled in a pint of water and half of it given at once. It 

 acts with remarkable promptitude. I have been informed that 

 Dr. Millar, of Neville, Ohio, values the tincture highly, as an 

 expectorant. He says it is also diaphoretic, and in large doses 

 emetic."— (Riddell, Synopsis West. Flor. 91.) 



Order LVIII.— SMILACE^. (Sarsaparilla Family.) 

 Sub-order I. — SMILACEJ3. (True Sarsaparilla Family.) 

 Sp. 170. Smilax glauca. Walt. Syn. Smilax Sarsaparilla. Wild- 

 Corn, names — Glancus Green-brier, American Sarsaparilla. 

 Shrub, climbing by tendrils sparingly prickly ; branches terete; 

 flowers greenish. — June. 



Sp. 171. S. Pseudo-china. Linn. 



Com. name — Sarsaparilla. Climbing shrub ; stems and 

 branches terete, unarmed; leaves strongly 5-nerved. — June? 



These, with the 8. Rotundifolia and S. Quadrangular is, are 

 natives of Ohio, and are said to be equal in every respect to 

 the foreign article of which so much is used, (empirically and 

 otherwise,) at this time. 



Sub-order II.— TRILLIACE.^. (Trillium Family.) 

 Sp. 172. Trillium erectum. Linn. 

 Com. names — Purple Trillium, Birth-root. Low, perennial 

 herb bearing at the summit a whorl of 3 broadly ovate leaves; 

 flower terminal, greenish white. — May. 



Sp. 173, Tr. grandiflorum. Salisb. 



Com. name — Large White Trillium. Flowers large, white; 

 changing with age to rose color. — June. 



Besides these, we have several other species of the genus. 

 Rafinesque speaks highly of them, and considers them "as- 



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