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IRIS FLORENTINA. 
The Florentine Iris is a perennial plant, a Native of Italy and 
the South of Europe, but from the beauty of its flowers, which appear 
early in May, it has been long naturalized in the gardens of Britain; 
it was first cultivated by (ierarde, at the end of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. The root of this plant is thick, tuberous, knobbed ; externally 
of a dark brown colour, and of a dirty white within ; from the lower 
part of the root it sends off a number of fibres which leave a round 
indentation, or shade on the tuberous root ; the leaves are sword- 
shaped, sheathing, and of a yellowish green colour, rising from the 
root; the flower stems are erect, simple, cylindrical, rising about 
two or three feet high, and each bearing two or three flowers ; the 
flowers are large, erect, protruded from a sheath, or spatha, of two 
valves; the three outer petals of the corolla are larger than the 
inner ones, thick and fleshy near the base, and bearded within with 
white hairs tipped with yellow, which are the nectarium of the flower; 
the inner petals are narrower, of a bluish white, with thick greenish 
elaws; the capsule contains many flat brown seeds; the filaments 
of the stamina are terminated by a number of long, pale yellow 
anthers. 
Sensible and Medical Properties. As the flowers of 
this plant are an ornament in the garden, so is the root an almost 
indispensable requisite at a fashionable toilet, under the name of 
orris root, a substance so well known as almost to render description 
unnecessary, but we are- quite at a loss to know how it came to find 
a place in the Materia Medica. It has indeed been said to possess 
hydragogue and purgative properties, and may like many other 
remedies no longer in use have had its fashionable reign, but that 
day has long passed by, at least in these countries. As a perfume, 
orris root is still in vogue among the fair sex, and serious consequences 
are said to have arisen from the immoderate use of it in this way. Dr. 
Aumont, of Paris, relates a case of two young ladies having become 
paralytic from putting a quantify of it into their hair at bed -time ; the 
effects produced were somewliat similar to those which are consequent 
upon the internal use of cantharides. The fresh root has an acrid, 
bitter taste; exciting, when chewed, a pungent heat in the mouth : by 
drying, most of this acrimony is destroyed, and the taste becomes 
mildly bitter, and somewhat aromatic, imparting at the same time, 
an agreeable odour I'esenibling violets. It is to be observed, however, 
that the roots propagated in England, have few of tlie properties of 
those which grow in Itaiy, which country supplies us with the orris 
root of commerce; the powdered root enters into the composition of 
many of the fashionable tooth powders, and is an agreeable addition 
to other substances used for this purpose. 
