RUTA GRAVEOLENS. 
Africa ; and was found growing near ledo in Japan by Tliunberg.* 
Rue was introduced into England about the year 1562, and is now 
cultivated in most gardens, flowering from June to September. 
The roots send forth several shrubby stalks, which towards the 
bottom are stroug, woody, and covered with rough grey striated bark : 
the upper or young branches are smooth, and of a pale green colour: 
the leaves are compound, consisting of double sets of irregular 
pinnae^ which are minutely notched or crenated, of an obversely 
oval shape, and of a glaucous or bluish green colour; the flowers 
are numerous, and produced in a branched corymbus, on subdividing 
peduncles; the calyx commonly divides into four, and sometimes 
into five pointed leaves ; the corolla consists of four, and frequently 
of five petals, these are hollow or boatshaped, dentated or fringed 
at the edges, and of a yellow colour; the ten filaments are yellowj 
tapering, spreading, and generally lodged in the cavity of the petals : 
the antherae are yellow and quadrangular; the style short; stigma 
simple; the germen is large, rougH, oval, green, and marked by four 
longitudinal furrows in the form o^ a cross ; the seeds are angular, 
rough, and of a blackish colour, contained in a four-celled capsule. 
The first account we have of the cultivation of rue in Britain is given 
by Turner, who published his Herbal in 1-562 ; it is now common in 
our gardens, where it is cultivated as an evergreen. 
Sensible Properties. Rue has a strong, ungrateful smell, 
and a hot, bitter, penetrating taste; the leaves are so acrid, that 
by mere handling they] are said to irritate and inflame the skin; 
the plant in its natural or uncultivated state is supposed to possess 
these qualities in a more powerful degree. Both water and spirit 
extract its virtues, the latter more perfectly than the former. Rue 
contains a volatile oil,t which readily congeals, and is obtained in 
the greatest quantity by distilling the plant with the seeds, half ripe. J 
Orfila says that rue exerts a local action, capable of producing 
more or less of inflammation, but in general not very severe ; the 
essential oil he says, when introduced into the veins, acts like 
narcotics, and he thinks it probable that it exerts the same action 
when introduced into the stomach, but with less energy. 
Medical Properties and Uses. Hippocrates commends 
* Flor. Japan, p. 180. 
t From the experiments of Beaame, it appears that the recent plants contain bat a 
Tery sm^ll portion ot essential oil : 21 lbs. of leaves yielded one draohm of oil ; 10 lbs 
of the seeds yielded two ounces. 
X Edinburgh Dispensatory. 
