t * ] 
the flowers of tire Parietaria are fo f, trail, and fo difficult to inveftigate, 
being- deicribed differently by different botanifts; LinnxEUSs defcuption, in ’ 
with our observations, Ins therefore we have adopted with fome tew alterations. 
VVefind only two forts of flowers on this plant, viz. hermaphrodite and female • ° f 
" 0 VoT SK« rf ' « trS^t" vfj; ^middle one, which is 
Stgeft a Jmoft “ffi fcnous. ,0 the female. If we take a view of the fame bloffoms juft 
elaftic filaments by their fudden expanfioa flatter the fertilizing duft of the anther*, the ftylts and lligma.a ot 
the hermaphrodite flowers vilrble before, will often b.e found wanting, and the germen left naked in the center of 
the flower at this period of the blofloming, the fegments of the calyx in the fame flowers are nearly o the fame 
lenath as the filaments the ftyle and ftigma of the female bloffom remain perfeft, with its germen clofely fu - 
rounded by a gieen hairy cllyx, which never expands: the blofloming period being now over, a conhderable 
alteration takes 6 place in the calyx of tile hermaphrodite flowers, each is confiderably elongated becomes more 
tubular affumes P a redder colour, has its tips prefled down, and foot! drops out of the : involucrum, in which it 
leaves no appearance of a feed ; hence I was ready to conclude that thefe flowers, the imperfe&on of vvhofe 
piftilla at a P certain age had before been noticed, were certainly barren, but on opening them I found in lie 
C of each a feed ferfeaiy fimilar to that produced by, and ...clofed in the calyx of the r wh ch 
does not enlarge as the other does, but partaking more of the nature of a capfule, on preffu.e, divides at top into 
four parts, and contains a blackiffi fhining ieed. 
It may feem a little extraordinary, that the imperfeffl hermaphrodite flowers of this plant fhould produce per- 
fca feed ; but we fhould coulider that they are pel-fed at firft, and that there always is a number of Anther* be- 
longing to flowers farther advanced burfting near them, from whofe pollen they may probably be impregnated. 
Scopoli deferibes male flowers on this plant, having a feffile, fhining, oblong, and pointed Nectary ; ft rely 
he muft confider the imperfea germeu in the hermaphrodite flowers as a Nefiarium, otherwife lie fees farther 
than any of his contemporaries. 
The curious manner in which thefe flowers fhed their Pollen, or fertilizing duft, is known to mod botanifts, 
but may be new to fome of our readers ; each filament has a peculiarity of ftrlidure which renders it highly 
elaftic there are four of them in number, on their firft appearance they all bend inward ; as foon as the pollen is 
arrived at a proper ftate to be difeharged, the warmth of the fun, or the lead: touch from the point of a pin, will 
make them inftantly fly back with a degree of force, and difeharge a little cloud of duft. This ptocefs is belt 
feen in a morning, when the fun ihines hot on the plant, in July and Auguft ; if the plant be large, numbeis 
will be feen exploding at the fame inftant. 
The Parietaria, which takes its name from its place of growth, is frequently found on walls, and among rub- 
bi(h el pecul ly on the walls adjoining the Thames, both above and below Weftminfter-bndge, it is not a native 
of Sweden or the more northern countries ; this autumn the fame degree of cold (viz. about 31 of Fahrenheit s 
thermometer) which ftripped the mulberry of moll of its leaves, deftroyed the greateft part of its herbage. 
Mr. Philip Miller ( vide Dicl. ed. 6 . \io.) aflerts that the Parietaria which grows wild in England is the 
Pellitory with a Bafil leaf. Parietaria Ocymi folio Bauh. Pin. Parietaria judaica Lin. and that the officinalis Lin. 
which he fays grows naturally in Germany and Holland, was not in England till the year 1727, when he firft 
introduced it ; in this opinion Mr. Miller ftands alone, and there is the greateft realon to luppofe that he is 
deceived, and the more fo, as the remainder of his account, in which he fays that “ the feeds are difficult to col- 
et left, as they are thrown out of their covers as foon as they are ripe with an elafticity ” Ihows extreme inat- 
tention. 
As a medicinal plant more virtues appear to have been attributed to the Parietaria than it deferves ; it has been 
ranked as an emollient, to which, in the opinion of Floyer and Cullen, it has no pretenfious, as a diuretic it 
was an ingredient in the nephritic decodion of the late Edinburgh Dhpenfatory, which is omitted in the preleut ; 
in this laft intention tne expreffed juice has been given in the dofe of three ounces. 
Mr. Sole, Apothecary of Bath, well known to the Botanic World, for his extenfive colledion of indigenous 
plants* informs me that he has obferved remarkably good effeds from the juice of this herb in droplical cafes, in 
which other diuretics had failed ; he converts the juice into a thin fyrup, and gives two table-fpoonfuls or more 
thrice a day. 
Monf. Tournefort, fpeaking of the Parietaria, fay?, “ Le firop de Parietaire foulage fort les hydropiques.” 
Hill, des Pl. de Paris. Aurelius Victor informs us, that Constantine beftowed on the Emperor Trajan 
the name of Parietaria, becaufe his ftatues and his inferiptions, like that herb, were found on all the walls of 
Rome. Le Meme. 
It is recommended to be laid on the corn in granaries, for the purpofe of driving away that deftrudive infed the 
Weevil. Bradley s Farm. Diredi. p. 122. 
