PULMONA RIA PANICULA'TA. 
PANICLED LUNGWORT. 
Class. Order. 
PENTANDR1A. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
BORAGINEiE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
Hud. Bay. 
9 inches. 
May, June. 
Perennial. 
in 1778. 
No. 131. 
Pulmonaria, from pulmo, the lungs ; so called, by 
ancient writers, because the leaves of the officinal 
species were thought to resemble the speckled sur- 
face of the human lungs. Hence the plant was con- 
sidered, by the old herbalists, to possess virtues, in- 
dicated by that resemblance. 
That medicines for all human ailments, have ever 
existed in the vegetable kingdom, has long been a 
prevailing idea. In the middle ages, physic and 
botanical chemistry were so closely allied, that no 
professor of the first could be deemed eminent, with- 
out an extensive knowledge of the latter. The science 
could not, however, have been entirely founded, on 
the basis of experience, or altogether on rational 
principles ; otherwise the mere exterior appearance 
of a plant, as in the present instauce, or peculiar habit, 
as in saxifraga oppositifolia, lately noticed, could 
not have been supposed indicative of an affinity with 
certain organs, or conceived as pointing them out as 
antidotes to certain diseases of the human frame. 
Divide the roots for increase, but each portion 
should remain a strong one, or it will not soon reco- 
ver, so as to blossom freely. 
Hort. Kew. 2, v. 1, 293. 
