LYTHRUM SALICARIA. 
293 
Europe. It is a handsome plant, rising to the height of three or four 
feet; the root is woody, branched, spreading, and furnished with 
many fibres; the stem is erect, leafy, quadrangular, but often 
hexagonous towards the lower part, of a reddish colour, smooth or 
downy ; the leaves vary in length, are opposite, sessile, lanceolate, 
entire, cordate at the base, smooth on the upper surface, and some- 
what pubescent beneath ; the flowers arise from the axillae of the 
leaves, and terminate the stem in a spike of whorls ; the calyx is 
inferior, cylindrical, striated, downy, and divided at the margin 
into twelve segments; of which six are long, awl-shaped and erect; 
the others smaller, ovate, concave, and bent inwards. The petals 
are six, elliptic-oblong, undulated, and of a reddish purple colour ; 
the twelve filaments are thread-shaped, alternately shorter and in- 
flected, and bear roundish anthers; the germen is ovate-oblong, 
supporting a simple style, crowned with a capitate stigma; the cap- 
sule is small, elliptical, two-celled, inclosed in the tube of the calyx, 
and contains several small seeds. 
Qualities, &c; Loose-strife has little or no odour ; its taste is 
herbaceous and sub-astringent. Its active properties are extracted 
both by aqueous and spirituous liquors : the watery decoction is 
mucilaginous, and strikes a black colour with the sulphate of iron, 
hence its components appear to be chiefly extractive, combined with 
a small portion of tannin. 
Medical Properties and Uses. Loose-strife is astringent and 
tonic; it has been chiefly celebrated as a remedy in diarrhoea, for 
which disorder it has been long a favorite and popular medicine in 
Ireland. De Hean, Stork, and other continental physicians, have 
also prescribed it with much success in laxity of the intestines, &c.; in 
dysentery it has likewise been useful, but in most cases it is proper 
to give some aperient previous to its exhibition. It is usually given 
in decoction, one ounce of the dried herb to one pint of water, of 
which two or three ounces may be taken twice a day: the powder 
may be given in doses of one drachm, or more, night and morning. 
Off. The Herb. 
