ON  CHELIDONIUM  MAJUS. 
7 
ON  CHELIDONIUM  MAJUS,  Lin. 
By  John  M.  Maisch. 
It  may  be  considered  the  duty  of  the  American  pharmaceu. 
tist  and  physician  to  explore  the  bountiful  flora  of  our  continent, 
and  among  the  numberless  plants  indigenous  to  this  hemisphere, 
to  search  for  new  remedies,  which  may  tend  to  fill  a  place 
hitherto  vacant,  or  which  may  answer  as  a  substitute  for  more 
costly  exotics.  In  this  connection  we  shall  have  to  turn  our 
attention  likewise  to  those  plants  which,  though  indigenous  to 
foreign  countries,  have  gradually  become  naturalized  to  our  soil 
and  climate,  and  grow  to  perfection  without  any  cultivating 
care  being  bestowed  upon  them.  The  great  variety  of  soil  in 
a  country,  stretching  from  the  coast  of  the  Mexican  Gulf  where 
the  very  word  of  cold  is  scarcely  known,  far  to  the  Northern 
boundaries,  where  winter  reigns  supreme  for  nearly  one  half  of 
every  year,  ought  to  enable  us  to  procure  a  home  for  most  of 
the  valuable  trees,  shrubs  and  plants,  no  matter  whether  they 
require  a  barren  or  rich,  a  dry  or  moist,  a  low  or  hilly  or  rocky 
ground.  If  more  general  attention  had  been  paid  to  this  matter, 
we  might  doubtless  now  count  among  our  naturalized  plants 
many  which  are  of  indispensable  necessity. 
It  cannot  be  denied,  that  besides,  or  probably  with,  such  plants 
as  are  used  for  food  or  in  the  arts,  for  culinary  or  ornamental 
purposes,  a  number  of  weeds  have  been  introduced,  which  in 
some  instances  have  become  a  nuisance  to  farms  and  gardens, 
and  cannot  now  be  extirpated.  If  possible,  we  ought  to  turn 
such  weeds  to  some  use,  and  it  is  with  this  object  in  view  I  now 
desire  to  call  attention  to  an  European  plant. 
Chelidonium  majus,  Lin.,  (English,  celandine;  French,  grande 
Eclair  or  chelidoine  •  German,  SchoHkraut,  Schwalbenkraut ; 
Spanish,  Celidonia  mayor)  belongs  to  the  natural  order  Papa- 
veraceae,  and  to  the  Linnean  class  and  order  Polyandria,  Mono- 
gynia.  It  is  a  perennial  plant,  indigenous  to  the  southern  and 
middle  sections  of  Europe,  and  extensively  naturalized  in  the 
northern  and  middle  States  of  the  Union,  where  it  grows  in 
waste  places,  among  rubbish,  along  hedges,  fences  and  walls. 
The  root  consists  of  a  cylindric  or  conical  caudex,  about  one 
inch  to  an  inch  and  a  half  in  length,  of  the  thickness  of  a  quill 
