The BRITISH HERBAL. 
83 
leaves, as the cup in the common kind is ; and 
have at the top a double creft that has a feather- 
ed afped: the colour of the flower is a lively 
■purple. 
It is a native of /Ethiopia, and Rowers in 
May. 
Barman calls it Pohgala fru£Iefcens foliis linea- 
ribus pre majore purpurea. 
There are feveral fpecies of polygala that are 
abfolute flirubs and trees : thefe we fhall treat of 
in their pJace : this approaches to them, and 
may ferve as the laft of the others, and to Ihew 
the gradation. 
3, The Sennekka Rattlc-fnake Plant. 
Polygala radice marginata. 
The root is long, flender, and divided into 
feveral parts: it fprcads irregularly under the 
furface, and is of a brown colour: it is very 
fingular in that there runs an edge or margin of 
a membranaceous fubftance on each fide all the 
way along it. 
The firfl; flioots are numerous and full of 
leaves : thefe are fhort, narrow, and fliarp- 
pointed. 
The ftalks arc a foot high : they are round, 
weak, and of a pale green. 
The k^vtb Hand irregularly on them, and arc 
oblong, narrow, of a pale green, and pointed aC 
the end. 
The flowers ftand in a long, loofe fpike, and 
are white or bluifh. 
The feed veffel is flat, and the feeds are nume" 
rous, yellowlfli, and fmall. 
It is a native of North America, and has beert 
of late introduced into medicine, under the name 
of radix fenekka, or the raitie fnake root. 
The knowledge of its virtues v/as firfi: owing 
to the Indians, who have recourfe to it againfl; 
venomous bites, that of the rattle-fnake not ex- 
cepted, from which it took its name. 
It is excellent in pleurefies and quinziesj and 
all other diforders of that kind. It has had the 
fate of many good things, to be talked too high 
at firft. Dr. Tennent, who introduced it here, 
recommended it with the warmth natural to the 
inventor of a new meth.-d of cure ; and from 
his faying too m-ich n its praife people came to 
fuppofe it deferved Ids than it really does- It is 
truly a great medicine, chough now fallen into 
difufe. 
The commm milkwort is a purge. A handful 
of the leaves boiled in a!e is a dofe for a ftrong 
man: it v/orks brifkly, and without any ill etfeft. 
i he root dried and powdered is a fudorifick ; 
ten grains is a dole. 
GENUS XXIL 
DODDER; -■ 
C V S C V t A. 
THE flower conflfts of a fingle petal, tubular at the bafe, and divided into four fegments at tiie 
edge : the feed-veflel is a fingle, roundilh capfule, containing two feeds : the cup is divided 
into four fegments. 
Linnaeus places this among his tetrandria digynia ; there being four threads in every flower, and 
the rudiment of the capfule giving origin to two fl:yles. 
That author, in his Genera Plantarum, improperly joins the bafelh with this genus : the hafella hav- 
ing, as himfelf acknowledges, a fingle feed after every flower, not contained in any capfule, but fur- 
rounded in the lower part by a fucculent cup : neither do the other charafters of cufcxla agree with 
this plant. 
In his Species Plantarum he places them feparate, making the hafelU, as it properly is, one of his 
fentandria tris/nia; for in that genus the threads are only five, and the ftyles three. Of this Linnsus 
was fenfible, when he ranked it with mfcuta, whofe threads are only four, and whofe fl:yles two. 
We have given fuflicient infl:ances, that this method of claffing plants is frivolous ; here is a proof 
its author thought it fo : why therefore did he endeavour to recommend to others what he had him- 
felf found infufficient ? 
We have obferved that the feed of bafella fl:ands in a fleflry cup, othcrwife uncovered. The reader 
■will therefore fee plainly why we do not add it to the genus of cufcuta : it is not fo much as of this 
clafs, for it has no capfule, 
DIVISION I. BRITISH SPECIES. 
Common Dodder. 
Cufcuta vulgaris. 
This ftrange plant confifts only of filaments, 
or long, tough threads, winding themfelves about 
other herbs, and here and there ornamented 
with flowers : it has no leaves, and has been fup- 
pofed to have no root ; but better obfervation 
will fliew that to be an error. 
Its firll: appearance, though little regarded, is 
on the ground. 
Its root confifts of a few flender, long, and 
branched, redifh fibres. 
From thefe rife ten or twelve ftalks, in form of 
fmall, red threads. 
Thefe rifing in height, lay hold of fome plant 
that is near them, and chmb up on it : it there is 
none near, they pine, and the root dies with 
them ; fo the plant fading while fmall, is not at 
all regarded. When there is a plant in the way, 
which is uiually the cafe, the young flioots rifing 
from feeds dropped from the old herb as it hangs 
4 among 
