128 
Ikfo^italanlisi ftartttesf. 
it were fhadowed, the Stalkes are as hollow as a Kix, and 
fo are the Roots, which are tranfparent, very tender, and 
full of a yellowifh juice. 1 
For Bruifes and Aches upon Jiroaks. 
The Indians make ufe of it for Aches, being bruifed 
between two ftones, and laid tocold, but made (after the 
EngliJJi manner) into an unguent with Hogs Greafe, there 
is not a more foveraign remedy for bruifes of what kind 
foever; and for Aches upon Stroaks. 
In Augu/l, 1670. in a Swamp amongft Alders, I found a 
fort of Tree Sow Thiftle, the Stalks of fome two or three 
Inches, [75] about, as hollow as a Kix and very brittle, 
the Leaves were fmooth, and in fhape like Sonc/ius Icevis, 
i.e. Hares Lettice, but longer, fome about a Foot, thefe 
grow at a diftance one from another, almoft to the top, 
where it begins to put forth Flowers between the Leaves 
1 Imfiatiens fulva, Nutt. (touch-me-not; balsam). Wilson says this plant 
" is the greatest favorite with the humming-bird of all our other flowers. In some 
places where these plants abound, you may see at one time ten or twelve hum- 
ming-birds darting about, and fighting with and pursuing each other." — Amer. 
Ornithol., by Brezver, p. 120. As to Josselyn's note on its use in medicine by the 
Indians, compare Wood and Bache, Disp., p. 1345. A kix, or kex, or kexy, — 
used in the expression, " hollow as a kix," — is a provincialism, in various parts 
of England, for hemlock; " the dry, hollow stocks of hemlock" (whence Webster's 
query, — Fr., cique ; Lat. cicuta) ; and also of cow-parsley, according to Holloway 
(Di(5t. of Provincialisms) : that is to say, secondarily, any hollow-stemmed plant 
like hemlock. Gerard's figure of Impatiens noli tangcre, L., the European bal- 
sam, — of which the earlier botanists considered our species to be varieties, — is 
so poor, and the plant so rare in Britain, that it is perhaps little wonder that our 
author took the showy American balsam to be quite new. 
