ARNICA MONTANA. 
107 
This species of Arnica is a native of the north of Europe, de- 
lighting in mountainous situations ; it is a common plant on the 
mountains of Germany, Switzerland, and Siberia, flowering in July : 
it has also been found in North America. This plant was first cul- 
tivated in England, by Mr. P. Miller, in 1759,* but our climate is not 
so congenial to its propagation as its native soil. The root is peren- 
nial, externally of a brown colour : its forni is paemorse, with 
bundles of long fibres attached to it ; the stalk rises about one foot 
in height, erect, obscurely angular, striated, rough, hairy, and 
terminated by two or three upright peduncles, each bearing a single 
flower; the leaves are ovate, obtusely lance-shaped, and stand 
sessile, in pairs upon the stem ; the radical leaves are less pointed, 
and narrower at their bases than the cauline leaves ; the flowers 
are of a deep yellow or copper colour; the calyx is imbricated, and 
consists of a single row (from fifteen to sixteen) of narrow lancet- 
shaped, rough leaflets, with purple points ; the florets of the ray arc 
ligulate, about fourteen in number, twice as long as the calyx, 
striated, three-toothed, and hairy at the base ; the florets of the 
disc are tubular, with a five-lobed margin ; the seeds are oblong, 
striated, and crowned with down, of a russet colour. 
Sensible and Chemical Properties. The odour of the 
fresh plant is weak, and to some rather unpleasant ; when dried it 
is slightly aromatic, and excites sneezing : to the taste, the leaves 
and flowers are somewhat aromatic, bitter and pungent ; that of 
the root acrid and bitter. The herb when macerated in boiling 
water, yields an olive-brown infusion, which strikes a deep green 
colour with sulphate of iron and zinc, and lets fall dark precipitates ; 
the mineral acids render the infusion turbid, and of a djrty white 
colour, occasioning brown precipitates; the infusion reddens tincture 
of litmus, but occasions no change in solutions of tartarized antimony 
or oxymuriate of mercury ; the leaves and flowers when digested in 
sulphuric ether or alcohol, give out a resinous matter, which may be 
separated from the former solution by evaporation, and from the 
latter, by the addition of water. It is therefore probable, that the 
Arnica plant contains resin, tannin, mucus, a bitter matter, and a 
peculiar acid, which Bouillon la Grange thinks is gallic acid. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The leaves and flowers 
of Arnica when administered in small doses, are stimulant, diapho- 
* Hortas Kewensis, vol. iii. p. 226. 
