THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
79 
Linum catharticum , so common to the same district. Alas ! 
our own vision is not so perfect as it was then, some thirty 
years since; yet we should not expect difficulty now in 
finding our obscure but interesting friend about July or 
August. 
The plant was at one time esteemed as an astringent 
medicine, thus possessing some of the principles of the San¬ 
dalwood and Kino, which belong to the woody section of the 
order. These opinions, however, are expressed with caution, 
as even Pereira was in great doubt as to the speics, or even 
families, that produced these medicines. 
3. The Aristolochiaceae, or Birthworts, number 8 genera 
and 130 species. Several of these are common in the equi¬ 
noctial parts of South America, and rare in other countries ; 
found sparingly in North America, Europe, and Siberia; 
more frequently in the basin of the Mediterranean; and in 
small numbers in India. 
The plants belonging to the order present such variations 
that it is, indeed, difficult to assign them with certainty to 
their present position ; they are mostly herbaceous, and the 
two forms, rarely met with in our own country in a doubt¬ 
fully wild position, may be referred to as affording good 
examples of their order ; these are— 
Asarum Europceum .—Asarabacca is, as stated by Mr. 
Syme, very rare, perhaps not truly native, at least in many 
of its stations, though it is probably so near Salisbury, Wilts, 
Halifax, and near Settle, Yorkshire; Burnley, Lancashire; 
and Westmoreland. We have never gathered it in a wild 
habitat, though we have met with it in old-fashioned gardens, 
as it was at one time held in great repute, even by learned 
physicians, though it now has no place in the Pharmacopoeia. 
Perhaps its only use at present is as an errhine, as it is said 
to be the basis of most of the cephalic snuffs. 
4. Aristolochici clematitis, Birthwort, from the following, 
was once a herb of great repute : 
“ The name of the common Birthwort, and its supposed 
remedial powers, are the suggestions of the doctrine of 
signatures, by the shape of the corolla. 
The root is aromatic and bitter, but not ungrateful to the 
palate. 
16 It has been used in the Portland powder for the cure of 
gout, but not without producing effects more formidable than 
the original disease. The ancients attributed great virtues 
to it. Gerarde tells us that it is a singular and much-used 
antidote against the bite of the rattlesnake, or rather adder 
or viper, whose bite is very deadly, and therefore, by the 
