ARNICA MONTA'NA. 
MOUNTAIN ARNICA. 
Class. Order. 
SYNGENESIA. POLY GAMIA SUPERFLUA. 
Natural Order. 
CORYMBIFERiE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
Europe. 
1 foot. 
July, Aug. 
Perennial. 
in 1759. 
No. 239. 
Arnica is supposed, by most authors, to have been 
derived from the Greek ptarnumai, to sneeze; 
either directly, or by a corruption of our term ptar- 
mica, sneezewort. It would seem much more pro- 
bable, that Arnica may have originated in the Greek 
Arnakis, signifying a lamb’s skin with its wool; 
which, in many cases, may be, not unaptly, applied. 
Montana, mountain, from the Latin, given on ac- 
count of its being found indigenous to mountainous 
parts of Europe. 
Notwithstanding the Arnica montana possesses 
rather potent qualities, we have no particular notice 
of it from the ancients. This is the less remarkable, 
when considered a native of Europe only ; where the 
old herbalists have been eminent, rather on account 
of their empiricism than their science. The principal 
part of their knowledge was drawn from the Greeks ; 
whom Pliny, nearly eighteen hundred years ago, then 
called the ancients, and extolled their perseverance. 
He says, they climbed to the tops of the highest 
mountains, travelled through deserts, and searched 
every corner of the earth, to find herbs, and discover 
their virtues. He then complains of the ignorance 
