ANGELICA ARCHANGELICA. 
9 
greyish-brown colour externally, breaks short with a starchy fracture, 
and presents a firm interior, whitish, with many brown and yellowish 
spots ; it has the same taste and smell as the recent plant, yielding 
these qualities to alcohol, and in some degree to boiling water. The 
roots of Angelica, when wounded in the spring, yield an odorous 
yellow juice, which slowly dessicated, proves an elegant gum- 
resin, rich in the qualities of the plant. For medicinal purposes the 
roots should be dug up in the autumn of the first year, when they 
are more easily preserved than if gathered in the spring ; in the 
latter case they are liable to become mouldy, and to be preyed on 
by insects. They should be thoroughly dried, and kept in a well- 
aired dry place ; and Lewis recommends the dipping them in boiling 
spirits, or exposing them to steam after they are dried. The leaves 
and seeds lose their virtues by keeping. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The leaves and seeds 
when recent, and the root, both fresh and dried, are tonic and 
carminative, and may be considered the most elegant ai'omatic of 
our northern climes ; modern practice however has almost entirely 
rejected this plant. By the Laplanders and Icelanders, Angelica is 
much in request, both as an article of food and for medicinal pur- 
poses. The former use it for many catarrhal and pectoral affections, 
and an extract made from the flowers, boiled in the milk of the rein 
deer, is considered by them diaphoretic and tonic ; the stalks roasted 
are used by them as an article of food, and we are told by Sir 
George Mackenzie, that the Icelanders eat the stems and roots of 
Angelica raw with butter.* In this country the tender stems are 
cut in May and made into an agreeable sweetmeat. By Gerarde, 
Angelica is extolled as a panacea for all the ills of life. 
Off. The Root. 
* Travels in Iceland. 
VOL. II. 
