106 
INULA HELENIUM. 
ulcers, relieving pain and abating the foetid smell.* As an article of 
diet carrots may be considered wholesome, seldom disagreeing with 
those who eat them in moderation, and from the large portion of 
saccharine matter they contain afford much nourishment ;f carrots 
when eaten raw, or not sufficiently boiled to be tender, are cer- 
tainly of difficult digestion, and as indigestible substances were 
thought to be pernicious to worms, raw carrot was formerly a 
popular remedy, and was given to children as a vermifuge. 
Off, The Seeds of the wild, and the Roots 
of the garden carrot. 
♦ 
INULA HELENIUM, 
Elecampane. 
Class Syngenesia. — Order Polygamia Superflua. 
Nat. Ord. Composite Discoide^, Linn. 
CORYMBIFER^, JuSS. 
Gen. Char. Receptacle naked. Pappus simple. Calyx 
imbricated. Anthers with two bristles at the base. 
Spec. Char. Leaves ovate, rugged, clasping the stem, tomen- 
tose beneath. Calyx scales ovate, leafy. 
Twenty-six species of the genus Inula are cultivated in our 
botanic gardens ; § the Inula Helenium is indigenous to Britain, 
although rarely to be met with in its wild state. Elecampane is also 
* The use of the carrot poultice was first discovered by Salzur. 
iSee Journal de Medicine, t. 24, p. 68. 
+ " The Arabians place carrots among their Mobehyat, (Aphrodisiaca), a proof that 
they never could have supposed them to be iudigestible, which they have been by some 
reckoned ; the fact is, that when well boiled, they are of peculiarly easy digestion, and 
very nutritious." Ainslie's Materia Indica, vol. i. p. 57. 
X Fig. a. represents a branch of the natural size. b. Florets of the disk. e. A 
perfect floret, d. A floret with the corolla removed to shew the anthers, e. A floret 
of the radius. /. The anthers spread open. 
§ Hort. Cant . 
