68 
CHIRONEA CENTAURIUM. 
throw down a white precipitate, and with sulphate of iron it 
turns black. 
Medical Properties and Uses. This plant has been prin- 
cipally regarded in the character of a mild tonic and deobstruent, 
and was formerly held in considerable esteem as a medicine of much 
efficacy in hepatic and other visceral obstructions. It has been 
given with advantage in lax and weak state of the solids; and we 
are told that in many cutaneous disorders it manifests considerable 
efficacy ;* but like many of our indigenous plants it is now very 
seldom prescribed. 
Agrimony is usually exhibited in the state of powder, in doses of 
from one scruple to a drachm three or four times a day ; but as the 
essential oil is entirely dissipated by drying, much of the virtues of 
the plant is thereby lost, hence probably the cause of its disuse ; we 
should therefore prefer the watery infusion. 
Off. The Herb. 
CHIRONEA CENTAURIUM. 
Common Centaury.-\ 
Class Pentandria. — Order Monogynia. 
Nat. Ord. RosACEiE, Linn. Gentian^e, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Corolla wheel-shaped. Pistil declined. • Sta- 
mens seated on the tube of the corolla. Anthers spiral at 
the end. Pericarp two-celled. 
Spec. Char. iS^a/^generally simple, smooth, angular. Leaves 
oblong, pointed, upright, three-ribbed. 
This species of Chironea is an annual plant indigenous to Britain, 
and is found growing in dry gravelly situations, on heaths, and by the 
sides of hedges ; " it is sometimes found in woods, in which situa- 
* Becker Diss, de EupatoFlsi Gitccorum sue Agiimonia fliibus Erf, 1783. 
+ Fig. a. the calyx, b, Thv pistllluin. t. and d. Two views of a stamen. 
