73. AVENA sativa. COMMON OATS.—A grain very commonly known, of which we have a number of varieties, from the thin old Black Oats to the fine Poland variety and the celebrated Potatoe-Oats.
These give the farmer at all times the advantage of a change of seeds, a measure allowed on all hands to be essential to good husbandry. The culture is various; thin soils growing the black kind in preference, which is remarkably hardy, where the finer sorts affecting a better soil will not succeed. It is applicable both to the drill and broad-cast. The seed is from six pecks to four bushels per acre, and the crop from seven to fourteen quarters.
74. CARUM Carui. CARAWAY SEEDS.—The seeds of this are in demand both by druggists and confectioners. It is cultivated in Kent and Essex; where it, being a biennial plant, is sown with a crop of spring corn, and left with the stubble during the succeeding winter, and after clearing the land in the spring is left to go to seed. It requires a good hot dry soil; but although the crop is often of great value, it so much exhausts the land as to be hazardous culture in many light soils where the dunghill is not handy.
The seed is about ten pounds per acre, and the crop often five or six sacks.
75. CORIANDRUM sativum. CORIANDER.—Is grown in the stiff lands, in Essex, and is an annual of easy but not of general culture. The seeds are used by druggists and rectifiers of spirits, and form many of the cordial drinks.
The quantity of seed and produce are similar to those of Caraway.
76. ERVUM Lens. LENTILS.—Once cultivated here for the seeds, which are used for soups; but it is furnished principally from Spain, and can at all times be purchased for less than it can be grown for.
77. HORDEUM distichon. COMMON TWO-ROWED BARLEY.—A grain now in very general cultivation, and supposed to be the best kind grown for malting. The season for sowing barley is in the spring, and the crop varies according to soil and culture; it is sown either broad-cast, drilled, or dibbled. The quantity of seed sown is from three pecks to three bushels per acre, and the produce from three to eleven quarters.
As the process of malting may not be generally understood by that class of readers for which this work is mostly intended, I shall give a short sketch of it.—It is a natural principle of vegetation, that every seed undergoes a change before it is formed into the young plant. The substance of the cotyledons, which when ground forms the nutritious flower of which bread is made, changes into two particular substances, i. e. sugar and mucilage; and whilst mankind form from it the principal staff of life as an edible commodity, the same parts of the seed in barley are by certain means made into malt, which is only another term for the sugar of that grain. To effect this, the barley is steeped in water, and afterwards laid in heaps, in which state it vegetates in a few days, and the saccharine fermentation is by that means carried on to a certain pitch, when it is put on a kiln to which a fire is applied, and it is by that means dried. It is then perfect malt, and fit for the purpose of brewing.
Pearl and Scotch Barley, used for soup and medicinal purposes, are made from the grain by being put into a mill, which merely grinds off the husk. The Pearl barley is mostly prepared in Holland, but the Scotch is made near Edinburgh in considerable quantities. A description of an improved Mill for this purpose is to be seen in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, p. 283.
78. HORDEUM vulgare. BERE, BIG, or WINTER BARLEY.—This is a coarser grain than the Two-rowed Barley, and hence it is not so well adapted to the purpose of malting. It is grown on cold thin soils, being much hardier than the former.
It is now often sown in October, and in the month of May or June following it is mown and taken off the land for green fodder. The plants will notwithstanding this produce in August a very abundant crop of grain. Hence this is a valuable mode of culture for the farmer.
The other varieties of Barley are,
79. HORDEUM hexastichon. SIX-ROWED BARLEY.—This is also a coarse grain; and although it was once in cultivation here, it has been altogether superseded by the Bere, which is a better kind.
80. HORDEUM zeocriton. BATTLEDORE BARLEY.—This is a fine grain, but very tender, and not now in cultivation in this country.
NAKED BARLEY. The two first species sometimes produce a variety which thrashes out of the husks similar to wheat: these are very heavy and fine grain, but they are not in cultivation: for what reason I know not.
81. PANICUM miliaceum. MILLET.—Millet is of two kinds, the brown and yellow. They are sometimes sown in this country for feeding poultry, and also for dressing; i. e. it is divested of the husk by being passed through a mill, when it is equal to rice for the use of the pastrycook. The seed used is from one to two bushels per acre. This is more commonly grown in Italy, and on the shores of the Mediterranean sea, from which large quantities are annually exported to the more northern countries.
82. PAPAVER somniferum. MAW-SEED.—The large white Opium Poppy is grown for seed for feeding birds, and also for pressing the oil, which is used by painters. The heads are also used by the apothecaries; which see under the head Medicinal Plants. About two pounds of seed to the acre.
83. PHALARIS canariensis. CANARY-SEED.—This is grown mostly in the Isle of Thanet, and sent to London &c. for feeding canary and other song-birds, and considered a very profitable crop to the farmer. It is sown in April, and the quantity of seed is about one bushel and a half per acre.
84. PISUM sativum. THE PEA [Footnote: At the request of Sir John Sinclair I made an experiment, from directions given by a French emigrant, of mixing Pease with urine in which had been steeped a considerable quantity of pigeon's dung. In the course of twenty-four hours they had swoln very much, when they were put into the ground. An equal quantity were steeped in water; and the same quantity also that had not been steeped, were sown in three adjoining spots of land. There was a difference in the coming up of the crops, of some days in each; but that with the above preparation took the lead, and was by far the best crop on the ground. This is an experiment worth attending to. It is usual to prepare wheat in a similar way, but no other grain that I have ever heard of.].—The Gray Hog-pea used to be the only one considered sufficiently hardy for culture in the fields; but since the improvement in our agriculture we have all the finer varieties cultivated in large quantities. The seed used is about two bushels and a half per acre, and the produce varies from three to ten quarters.
The varieties of Peas are many, but the principal ones used in agriculture are the Early Charlton Pea; the Dwarf Marrow; the Prussian Blue. All these are dwarf kinds; and as the demand for this article in time of war is great for the navy and army, if the farmer's land will suit, and produce such as will boil, they will fetch a considerably greater price in proportion.
The varieties that are found to boil are either used whole, or split, which is done by steeping them in water till the cotyledons swell, after which they are dried on a kiln and passed through a mill; which just breaking the husk, the two cotyledons fall apart.
85. POLYGONUM Fagopyrum. BUCK-WHEAT.—This is usually sown in places where pheasants are bred, as the seed is the best food for those birds; it is also useful for poultry and hogs. I have eaten bread and cakes made of the flower, which are also very palatable. Two bushels are usually sown per acre. The season is May; and it is often sown on foul land in the summer, as it grows very thick on the land, and helps to clean it by smothering all the weeds. The crop does not stand on the ground more than ten or twelve weeks.
86. SECALE cereale. RYE.—This is often grown for a spring crop of green food, by sowing it early in the autumn, as it is very hardy and is not affected by frost. It grows fast in the spring months, and affords a very luxuriant crop of green fodder. Tares and Rye are frequently sown mixed together for the same purpose, and the Tares find a support in the stalks of the Rye, by which means they produce a larger crop than they make by themselves. The grain is the next in estimation to Wheat, and is frequently used for making bread. The quantity sown per acre is the same as Wheat.
87. SINAPIS nigra. BLACK MUSTARD.—This is grown in Essex in great quantities for the seeds, which are sold to the manufacturers of flower of mustard, and is considered better flavoured, stronger, and capable of keeping better, than the white kind for such purpose. It is also in use for various medicinal preparations; which see. About two bushels of seed sown broad-cast are sufficient for an acre.
This plant affords another striking instance of the care of Providence in preserving the species of the vegetable kingdom, it being noticed in the Isle of Ely and other places, that wherever new ditches are thrown out, or the earth dug to any unusual depth, the seeds of Black Mustard immediately throw up a crop. In some places it has been proved to have lain thus embalmed for ages.
Flower of mustard, which is now become so common on our tables, and which is an article of very considerable trade, is but a new manufacture. A respectable seedsman who lived in Pall-Mall was the first who prepared it in this state for sale. The seeds of the white sort had been used to be bruised in a mortar and eaten sometimes as a condiment, but only in small quantities.
When used fresh it is weak, and has an unpleasant taste; but after standing a few hours the essential oil unites with the water which is used, and it then becomes considerably stronger, and the flavour is improved. It is prepared by drying the seeds on a kiln and grinding them to a powder. As this article is become of considerable importance from the demand, it has occasioned persons to speculate in its adulteration, which is now I believe often practised. Real flower of mustard will bear the addition of an equal quantity of salt without its appearing too much in the taste. In an old work, Hartman's treasure of Health, I find it to have been practised by a noble lady of that time to make mustard for keeping, with sherry wine with the addition of a little sugar, and sometimes a little vinegar. Query, Is this, with the substitution of a cheaper wine, the secret of what is called Patent Mustard?
88. TRITICUM aestivum. SPRING WHEAT.—Wheat is a grain well known in most countries in Europe. It has been in cultivation for many ages. This species was introduced some years ago from the Barbary coast, and has been found very beneficial for sowing in the spring, when it often produces a large crop. It takes a shorter time to come to maturity than the other sorts; and as it is a more profitable crop to the farmer on good soils than Barley, it is frequently sown after Turnips are over. This has, perhaps, been one of the best improvements in Grain husbandry that was ever introduced, as it gives the grower great advantages which he could not have under the common culture of Wheat at the usual seed-time. This is little different in appearance from the Common White Wheat. But there was a small variety of it with rounder grains sent to the Board of Agriculture from the Cape of Good Hope about the year 1801, of which I saved a small quantity of seeds which was distributed among the members; and I have lately seen a sample of it in the hands of a gentleman in Devonshire, who speaks very highly of it as producing a large crop in a short time, and that the flower was so much esteemed, that the millers gave him a higher price for it than the finest samples at market of the other kinds would sell for. I believe this variety is very scarce. It is now twelve years since I grew it, from which what I saw, and all other in cultivation, if any there are, have sprung.
89. TRITICUM compositum. EGYPTIAN WHEAT.—This is a species with branched ears, and commonly having as many as three and four divisions. It is much cultivated in the eastern countries, but has not been found to answer so well in this country as the common cultivated species.
90. TRITICUM hybernum. COMMON WHEAT.—Of this grain we have a number of varieties, which are grown according to the fashion of countries, differing in the colour of the ear and also of the grain. The most esteemed sorts are the Hertfordshire White and the Essex Red Wheat, which are both much cultivated and equally esteemed. The season for growing these kinds is usually September and October. The drill, dibble, and broad-cast modes are all used, as the land and convenience of the farmer happen to suit, and the produce varies accordingly; as does also the quantity of seed sown. From two pecks to two bushels and a half are sown on an acre.
Wheat is liable to the ravages of many terrestrious insects which attack its roots; and also some very curious diseases. One of these has been very clearly elucidated by our munificent patron of science, Sir Joseph Banks, in the investigation of a parasitical plant which destroys the blood of the stalk and leaves, renders the grain thin, and in some cases quite destroys the crop, which has done that gentleman's penetration great credit [Footnote: Sir Joseph Banks On the Blight in Corn.]. An equally extraordinary disease is the Smut, which converts the farinaceous parts of the grain to a black powder resembling smut: a cirumstance too well known to many farmers. Those who wish to consult the remedies recommended against this, may refer to The Annals of Agriculture, and most other books on the subject. It is usual with farmers to mix the Wheat with stale urine or brine, and to dry it by sifting it with slaked lime, which has the effect of causing it to vegetate quickly, and to prevent the attacks of many insects when the seed is first put into the ground. This is considered as productive of great benefit to the crop; but it is also to be remarked, that it is almost the only grain that is ever prepared with this mixture, although it might be applied with equal propriety to all others. See article Pisum sativum.
91. TRITICUM turgidum. CONE WHEAT.—This a fine grain, and cultivated much in the strong land in the Vale of Evesham, where it is found to answer better than any other sorts. It is distinguished by the square and thick spike, and having a very long arista or beard.
The following sorts of Wheat are mentioned as being in cultivation. But I have not seen them, neither do I think any of them equal to the sorts enumerated above:
Triticum nigrum. BLACK-GRAINED WHEAT. Triticum polonicum. POLISH WHEAT.Triticum monococcon. ONE-GRAINED WHEAT. Triticum Spelta. SPELT WHEAT.
Besides the use of Wheat for bread and other domestic purposes, large quantities are every season consumed in making starch, which is the pure fecula of the grain obtained by steeping it in water and beating it in coarse hempen bags, by which means the fecula is thus caused to exude and diffuse through the water. This, from being mixed with the saccharine matter of the grain, soon runs into the acetous fermentation, and the weak acid thus formed by digesting on the fecula renders it white. After setting, the precipitate is washed several times, and put by in square cakes and dried on kilns. These in drying part into flakes, which gives the form to the starch of the shops.
Starch is soluble in hot water, and becomes of the nature of gum. It is however insoluble in cold water, and on this account when pulverized it makes most excellent hair-powder.
92. Vicia Faba. THE BEAN.—Several kinds of Beans are cultivated by farmers. The principal are the Horse-Bean or Tick-Bean; the Early Mazagan; and the Long-pods. Beans grow best in stiff clayey soils, and in such they are the most convenient crop. The season for planting is either the winter or spring month, as the weather affords opportunity. They are either drilled, broad-cast sown, or put in by the dibble, which is considered not only the most eligible mode but in ge-neral affording the best crops. The seed is from one to three bushels per acre.
93. ZEA Mays. INDIAN CORN, or MAIZE. In warmer climates, as the South of France, and the East and West Indies, this is one of the most useful plants; the seeds forming good provender for poultry, hogs and cattle, and the green tops excellent fodder for cattle in general. I once saw a small early variety, that produced a very good crop, near Uxbridge; but I believe it is not in cultivation.
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94. CANNABIS sativa. HEMP.—This plant is cultivated in some parts of this country. It is usually sown in March, and is fit to harvest in October. It is then pulled up and immersed in water; when the woody parts of the stalks separating from the bark, which sloughs off and undergoes a decomposition by which the fibres are divided, it is then combed (hackled), dried, and reduced to different fineness of texture, and spun for various purposes. It requires good land, and the seed is usually two bushels and a half per acre.
The seed, which ripens about the time the hemp is pulled, is useful for feeding birds and poultry, and very nourishing.
95. DIPSACUS Fullonum. FULLER'S TEAVEL.—The heads of this plant are used for combing kerseymeres and finer broad cloths. The heads are generally fit to cut about the latter end of August, and are then separated and made up into bundles, and sold to the clothiers. The large heads are called Kings; the next size Middlings; and the smaller Minikins. The reason they are separated before sending to market is, that the large and small will not fit together on the frame in which they are fixed to the water-wheel, so that it is usual for the proprietor of the fulling-mills to purchase all of either one or the other size. The crop is considered very valuable, but the culture is confined to a small district in Somersetshire. The plant is biennial, and is usually sown in May, and the crop kept hoed during that season. In the following spring the plants bloom, and when the seeds are ripe the heads are fit for cutting; when they are assorted as above for the dealers. Three pounds of seed are used to an acre, and the plants at the last stirring are left from two feet to two feet and a half apart.
96. HUMULUS Lupulus. THE HOP.—The Hop is cultivated for brewing, being the most wholesome bitter we have, though the brewers are in the habit of using other vegetable bitters, which are brought from abroad and sold at a much cheaper rate. There is, however, a severe penalty on using any other than Hops for such purpose.
The Hops are distinguished by several varieties grown in Kent,Worcestershire, and at Farnham. The last place produces the best kind.For its culture more at length see Agriculture of Surry, by Mr.Stevenson.
97. ISATIS tinctoria. WOAD.—Is cultivated in the county of Somersetshire. It is used, after being prepared, for dyeing &c. It is said to be the mordant used for a fine blue on woollen. The foliage, which is like Spinach, is gathered during the summer months, and steeped in vats of water. After some time a green fecula is deposited in the bottom of the water, which is washed, and made into cakes and sold for use.
It is a perennial plant, and found wild in great abundance near Guildford, where great quantities might be gathered for use, and where a great deal of the seed could be collected. Its culture is very similar to that of the Teazle, with this difference, it requires the hoe at work constantly all the summer months.
The two plants Weld and Woad from the similarity of names are frequently confounded with each other, and some of the best agricultural writers have fallen into this error. They are two very different plants, and ought to be well defined, being each of them of very material consequence in this country.
98. LINUM usitatissimum. FLAX, or LINT-SEED.—Is grown for the purpose of making cloth, and has been considered a very profitable crop. The culture and management is similar to that of Hemp, and the seeds are in great demand for pressing. Lintseed oil, which it produces, is much used by painters, and is the only vegetable oil that is found fit for such purposes in general. The seeds are of several uses to the farmer; a tea is made of it, and mixed with skimmed milk, for fattening house-lambs and calves. Oxen are often fattened on the seed itself; but the cakes after the oil is expressed are a very common and most excellent article for fattening both black cattle and sheep. These are sold at from 10 l. to 16 l. per thousand.
It will require three bushels of Flax-seed for one acre, as it must be sown thick on the land. Lintseed cake has been used also for manure; and I have seen fine crops of Turnips where it has been powdered and sown in the drills with the seed.
99. RESEDA luteola. DYER'S-WEED, or WELD.—Is often confounded with Woad, but is altogether a very different plant. Weld is cultivated on the chalky hills of Surry, being sown under a crop of Barley, and the second year cleaned by hoeing, and then left to grow till it blooms, when it is pulled and tied up in small bundles, and after drying is sent to market, where it is purchased for dyeing yellow, and is in great request.
100. RUBIA tinctoria. MADDER.—This very useful dyeing drug used to be grown in this country in considerable quantities, but it is not cultivated here at the present time. The principal part of what is used now is brought from Holland, and affords a considerable article of trade to the Dutch farmers. Those who wish to be informed of the mode of culture may consult Professor Martyn's edition of Miller's Dictionary.
Some years since Sir Henry Englefield, Bart., obtained a premium from the Society of Arts for the discovery of a fine tint drawn from Madder, called the Adrianople red. It was found that it was to be obtained from a variety of the Rubia brought from Smyrna; and Mr. Smyth, our consul at that city, was prevailed on by Dr. Charles Taylor to procure seeds from thence, which the Society did me the honour of committing to my care; and I have now a considerable stock of that kind, from whence I have myself obtained the same beautiful and superior tint. See Trans. Soc. Arts. vol. 27, p. 40.
101. ULEX europaeus. FURZE, GORSE, or WHIN.—Is used in husbandry for fences, and is also much cultivated for fuel for burning lime, heating ovens, &c. Cattle and sheep relish it much; but it cannot be eaten by them except when young, in consequence of its strong spines; to obviate which an implement has been invented for bruising it. When it grows wild on our waste land, it is common to set it on fire in the summer months, and the roots and stems will throw up from the ground young shoots, which are found very useful food for sheep and other animals. It is readily grown from seeds, six pounds of which will be enough for an acre of land.
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102. ACER Pseudo-Platanus. SYCAMORE.—The wood of this tree is soft and of little use, unless it is for the turners' purposes, who make boxes and other small toys of it. It is not of value as timber.
103. ACER campestre. THE MAPLE.—Before the introduction of Mahogany and other fine woods the Maple was the principal wood used for all kinds of cabinet work, and was much esteemed: the knobs which grow on those trees in an old state afforded the most beautiful specimens, and according to Evelyn were collected by the curious at great prices. The Maple trees in this country are none of them at the present day old enough to afford that fine-veined variegation in the timber which is alluded to in this account.
104. ARBUTUS Unedo. THE STRAWBERRY-TREE.—Is a native of the islands in the celebrated Lake of Killarney in Ireland, where it grows to a large size. We know of no particular use to which it is applied. It is however one of our most ornamental evergreen shrubs, producing beautiful flowers, which vary from transparent white to deep red, in the winter months, at which season also the fruit appears; which taking twelve months to come to maturity affords the singular phaenomenon in plants, of having lively green leaves, beautiful flowers, and fruit as brilliant as the richest strawberry, in the very depth of our winter. We have a fine variety of this plant with scarlet blossoms, and also one with double flowers, both of which are singularly ornamental to the shrubbery.
105. ARBUTUS Uva Ursi. BEAR-BERRIES.—A small trailing plant of great repute as a medicine, but of no use in any other respect.
106. BERBERIS vulgaris. BARBERRY.—This has long been cultivated in gardens for its fruit, which is a fine acid, and it is used as a conserve, and also for giving other sweeter fruits a flavour. The common wild kind has stones in the fruit, which renders it disagreeable to eat. There is a variety without stones called the Male Barberry, which is preferred on this account.
This tree is subject to a disease in the summer, caused apparently from a yellow fungus growing on the leaves and young shoots; and it is said that where it grows near corn fields it imparts its baneful influence to the grain, for which reason it is recommended in some of our books on agriculture to exterminate the trees.
107. BETULA alba. BIRCH-TREE.—Is in great use and of considerable value on some estates for making brooms, and the timber for all purposes of turnery-ware and carving. The sap of the Birch-tree is drawn by perforating the bark in the early state of vegetation. It is fermented, and makes a very pleasant and potent beverage called Birch Wine.
108. BETULA Alnus. ALDER-TREE.—This is a valuable tree for planting in moors and wet places. The wood is used for making clogs, pattens, and other such purposes; and the bark for dyeing and manufacturing some of the finer kinds of leather. This wood is of considerable value for making charcoal for gunpowder. In charring it a considerable quantity of acetic acid is extracted, which is of great value for the purpose of bleaching, &c. &c.
109. BUXUS sempervirens. BOX-TREE.—The wood of Box is of great value for musical instruments, and for forming the handles of many tools: being very hard, it admits of a fine polish. This tree is growing in quantity at Box-hill in Surry, and has given name to that place.
This was planted by a late Duke of Norfolk, and has succeeded so well, that the wood has been cut twice, and sold each time for treble the value of the fee-simple of the land.
It forms a better cover for game than any other plant; and being very bitter, is not liable to be destroyed by any animal eating it down. An infusion of the leaves is frequently given as a vermifuge with good effect.
There is a smaller variety of this, much used for making edging to gravel walks in gardens.
110. CARPINUS Betulus. THE HORNBEAM.—This grows to a large tree, but is not of much account as timber: it is however very useful in forming ornamental fences, and is well adapted to this purpose from the tendency of its young branches to grow thick.
111. CLEMATIS Vitalba. TRAVELLER'S JOY.—A beautiful creeping shrub very useful to the farmers for making shackles for gates and hurdles, or withs for tying faggots and other articles. Whenever this plant is found in the hedges, &c. it is a certain indication of a ckalky under stratum in the soil.
112. CORNUS sanguinea. DOG-WOOD.—This is planted in pleasuregrounds as an ornamental shrub, and from the red appearance of the wood in the winter forms a beautiful constrast in plantations. It is also used by butchers for making skewers.
113. CORYLUS Avellana. THE HAZEL.—Is a well known shrub of large growth producing nuts, which are much admired. The Filbert is an improved variety of this plant. The farmers in Kent are the best managers of Filberts, and it is the only place where they are grown with any certainty; which appears to be owing principally to the trees being regularly pruned of the superfluous wood. It is performed in the month of March when the plants are in bloom, and is the only time when the fruit-bearing wood can be distinguished.
114. CRATAEGUS Aria. WHITE BEAM-TREE.—Is a beautiful tree producing very hard wood, and is much in esteem for cogs of millwork and various other purposes.
115. CRATAEGUS Oxyacantha. THE QUICKSET, or WHITE-THORN.—This is in great request for making fences, and is the best plant we know for such purposes if properly managed. It is readily propagated by sowing the hips, or fruit, which does not readily grow the first season; it is therefore usual to bury them mixed with saw-dust, or sand, one year, and then to sow them in beds.
116. DAPHNE Laureola. SPURGE- or WOOD-LAUREL.—Is used in medicine; which see.
We have many species of Daphne which are very ornamental to our shrubberies and green-houses: these are propagated principally by grafting; and the Wood-Laurel being hardy and of ready growth forms the stock principally used. It is readily propagated by seeds, which in three years will make plants large enough for this purpose.
The plant in all its parts is excessively acrid. I remember a man being persuaded to take the leaves reduced to powder, as a remedy for Syphilis, and he died in consequence in great agony in a few hours.
117. DAPHNE Mezerium. MEZERION.—Is a very beautiful shrub, and is one of the earliest productions of Flora, often exhibiting its brilliant scarlet flowers in January and February. We have also a white variety of this shrub in the gardens. The bark and roots are extremely acrimonious, and are used in medicine.
118. ERICA vulgaris. THE COMMON HEATH, HEATHER, or LING.—-This spontaneous produce of most of our sandy waste lands is of much usin rural oeconomy.
It is of considerable value for making brooms, and affords food to sheep, goats, and other animals; particularly to the grouse and heath-cock. The branches of heath placed upright in a wooden frame form the couch of repose to the brave Highlander. It is also stated that an excellent beverage was brewed from the tops of this plant, but the art of making it is now lost. This is the most common of the species, but all the others have similar properties. They are very ornamental plants. A numerous variety of heaths are brought from the Cape of Good Hope, and afford great pleasure to the amateur of exotic plants, being the greatest ornaments to our green-houses.
119. EUONYMUS europaeus. SPINDLE-TREE.—An ornamental shrub. The wood is in great request for making skewers for butchers, as it does not impart any unpleasant taste to the meat.
120. FAGUS Castanea. THE SPANISH CHESNUT.—This tree produces timber similar to oak in point of durability, and the bark also contains a considerable quantity of tannin. The Chesnut was in greater plenty in this country many years ago than at the present day; large forests are represented to have been in the neighbourhood of London; and we are led to believe such may have been the case, as many of the old buildings when examined have been found to be built of this timber. The fruit is used as a dainty at table; but the variety which is brought from Portugal and Spain is much larger than what are grown in this country. The large kind imported from those countries is grafted, and kept on purpose for the fruit. It is an improvement to graft this variety by taking the scions from trees in bearing, and they will produce fruit in a few years and in a dwarf state.
121. FAGUS sylvatica. THE BEECH.—The timber of the Beech is valuable for making wheels, and is applied to many other useful purposes in domestic oeconomy. The seeds of the Beech are very useful for fattening hogs.
This tree affords many beautiful varieties in foliage, the handsomest of which is the Copper Beech, whose purple leaves form a fine contrast in colour with the lively green of the common sort.
123. FRAXINUS excelsior. THE ASH.—The wood of the Ash is considered the best timber for all purposes of strong husbandry utensils. The wheels and axle-trees of carriages, the shafts for carts, and the cogs for mill-work, are principally made of this timber. The young wood when gown in coppices is useful for hop-poles, and the small underwood is said to afford the best fuel of any when used green. Coppice-land usually sells for a comparatively greater price according as this wood prevails in quantity, on account of its good quality as fuel alone.
124. HEDERA Helix. IVY.—A common plant in woods, and often planted in shady places to hide walls and buildings. The leaves are good food for deer and sheep in winter. The Irish Ivy, which was brought from that country, is a fine variety with broad leaves. It was introduced by Earl Camden.
125. HIPPOPHAE Rhamnoides. SEA BUCKTHORN.—This is a scarce shrub; but is very useful as a plant for forming shelter on the hills near the sea-coast, it having been found to stand the sea-breeze better than any plant of the kind that is indigenous to this country.
126. ILEX aquifolium. HOLLY.—A well-known evergreen of singular beauty, of which we have many varieties, both striped, and of different colours in the leaf. Birdlime is made from the inner bark of this tree, by beating it in a running stream and leaving it to ferment in a close vessel. If iron be heated with charcoal made of holly with the bark on, the iron will be rendered brittle; but if the bark be taken off, this effect will not be produced. Ray's Works and Travels by Scott.
127. JUNIPERUS communis. JUNIPER.—An evergreen shrub, very common on waste lands. The berries are used in preparing the well-known spiritous liquor gin, and have been considered of great use in medicine.
128. LIGUSTRUM vulgare. PRIVET.—A shrub of somewhat humble growth, very useful for forming hedges where shelter is wanted more than strength. It bears clipping, and forms a very ornamental fence. There is a variety of this with berries, and another nearly evergreen.
129. MESPILUS germanica. THE MEDLAR.—Is cultivated for its fruit, and of which we have a variety called the Dutch Medlar; it is larger than our English one, but I do not think it better flavoured.
130. PINUS sylvestris. THE SCOTCH FIR.—A very useful tree in plantations for protecting other more tender sorts when young. It is also now very valuable as timber:—necessity, the common parent of invention, has taught our countrymen its value. When foreign deal was worth twenty pounds per load, they contrieved to raise the price of this to about nine or ten pounds, and it was then thought proper for use; before which period, and when it could be bought for little money, it was deemed only fit for fuel. On the South Downs I know some plantations of this tree, which have been sold, after twenty-five years growth, at a price which averaged a profit of twenty shillings per annum per acre, on land usually let for sheep-pasture at one shilling and six-pence.
131. POPULUS alba. WHITE POPLAR. This is a very ornamental tree. The leaves on the under surface are of a fine white, and on the reverse of a very dark green; and when growing on large trees are truly beautiful, as every breath of air changes the colour as the leaves move. The wood of all the species of poplar is useful for boards, or any other purposes if kept dry. It is much in demand for floor-boards for rooms, it not readily taking fire; a red-hot poker falling on a board, would burn its way through it, without causing more combustion than the hole through which it passed.
132. POPULUS monilifera. CANADA POPLAR.—This is also known by the name of BLACK ITALIAN POPLAR, but from whence it had this name I do not know. This species, which is the finest of all the kinds, grows very commonly in woods and hedges in many parts of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, where it reaches to prodigious sizes. Perhaps no timber is more useful than this; it is very durable, and easy to be converted to all purposes in building. The floors of a great part of Downton Castle, the seat of R. Payne Knight, Esq. are laid with this wood, which have been used forty years and are perfectly sound. Trees are now growing on his estate which are three and four feet in diameter. I have one growing in my Botanic garden which is eight years old, and measures upwards of six cubic feet of timber. The parent of this tree which grew at Brompton I converted into boards. It was nineteen years growing; and when cut down it was worth upwards of fourteen pounds, rating it at the then price of deal, for which it was a good substitute. Some fine specimens of this tree are also to be seen at Garnins, the seat of Sir J. G. Cotterell, Bart. the present worthy member for the county of Hereford.
133. PRUNUS domestica. THE COMMON PLUM-TREE.—This is the parent of our fruit of this name.
134. PRUNUS Cerasus. WILD CHERRY-TREE.—Is the parent of our fine cherries. It is cultivated much in Scotland for the timber, which is hard, and of use for furniture and other domestic purposes. It is the best and most lasting stock for grafting on. Persons who are about to plant this fruit would do well to inquire into the nature of the stock, as no fruit-tree is so liable to disease and become gummy as cherries are, and that is often much owing to the improved kinds being sown for stocks, which are of a more tender texture and of course less hardy than this.
135. PRUNUS insititia. SLOE-TREE.—Is of little use except when it occurs in fences. The fruit is a fine acid, and is much used by the common people, mixed with other fruits less astringent and acid, to flavour made wines. It is believed that much Port wine is improved by the same means.
136. PYRUS communis. PEAR-TREE.—This is the parent of all our fine varieties of this fruit, and is used as the stock for propagating them; these are raised from seeds for that purpose. The wood of the Peartree is in great esteem for picture frames, it receiving a stain better than almost any other timber known.
137. PYRUS Malus. CRAB-TREE.—A tree of great account, as being the parent of all our varieties of apples, and is the stock on which the fine varieties are usually grafted. A dwarf variety of this tree, called the Paradise Apple, is used for stocks for making dwarf apple trees for gardens.
The juice of the Crab is called verjuice, which is in considerable demand for medicinal and other purposes.
138. QUERCUS robur. THE OAK.—Is a well known tree peculiar to Great Britain, and of the greatest interest to us as a nation. It is of very slow growth; but the timber is very strong and lasting, and hence it is used for building our shipping. The bark is supposed to contain more tannin than that of any other tree, and is valuable on that account. The acorns, or fruit, are good food for hogs, which are observed to grow very fat when turned into the forests at the season when they are ripe. The tree is raised from the acorn, which grows very readily.
We have accounts of Oak trees growing to great ages, and to most enormous sizes. One instance is mentioned by Evelyn, of one growing at Cowthorp, near Weatherby, in 1776, which within three feet of the ground was sixteen yards in circumference, and its height about eighty-five feet. Hunter's Evelyn's Sylva, p. 500.
139. ROSA rubiginosa. SWEET-BRIAR.—Is a very fragrant shrub, for which it has long been cultivated in the gardens. There are several varieties in the nurseries; as the Double-flowering, Evergreen, &c. which are much esteemed.
140. RUBUS Idaeus. THE RASPBERRY.—Produces a well known fruit in great esteem, and of considerable use both as food and for medicine.
141. RUBUS fruticosus. BRAMBLE.—Produces a black insipid fruit, but which is used by the poor people for tarts and to form a made wine: when mixt with the juice of sloes it is rendered very palatable.
142. RUBUS caesius.—Is a dwarf kind of bramble, and produces fruit of a pleasant acid, and where it grows in plenty it is used by the poor people for pies and other purposes of domestic oeconomy.
143. SALIX Russelliana. THE WILLOW.—No trees in this country are of more use than the species of this genus: many are grown for basket-makers in form of osiers, and other larger sorts serve for stakes, rails, hop-poles, and many other useful purposes. The bark of several species has been considered as useful for tanning leather. The charcoal of the Willow is also much in demand for making gunpowder.
144. SALIX viminalis. THE OSIER.—These are cultivated in watery places for making baskets, which are become a profitable article, and are the shoots of one season's growth cut every winter. The species best adapted to this purpose, besides the common osier, are
The Salix vitellina. Golden Willow. The Salix monandria. Monandrous Willow. The Salix triandria. Triandrous Willow. The Salix mollissima. Silky-leaved Willow. The Salix stipularis. Auriculated Osier. The Salix purpurea. Bitter Purple Willow. The Salix Helix. Rose Willow. The Salix Lambertiana. Boyton Willow. The Salix Forbyana. Basket Osier. The Salix rubra. Green Osier. The Salix nigricans. Dark Purple Osier.
145. SAMBUCUS nigra. ELDER.—The timber of the Elder is useful for making musical instruments, and the berries made into wine and fermented make a useful and valuable beverage. A variety with green berries is much esteemed for wine also.
146. SORBUS Aucuparia. QUICKEN-TREE, or MOUNTAIN-ASH.—In this part of Britain we usually find this tree in plantations, where it is very ornamental; and the berries, which are of a fine scarlet, are the food of many species of birds. The wood is also useful for posts, &c. and is considered lasting.
147. SORBUS domestica. TRUE SERVICE.—Produces a fruit much like the Medlar, and when ripe is in great esteem. The only tree in this country in a wild state, is growing in Bewdley Forest, Worcester-shire.
148. SPARTIUM Scoparium. BROOM.—Is a very ornamental plant, and is used for making besoms. It was once considered as a specific in the cure of dropsy, but is now seldom used for medicial purposes.
149. STAPHYLEA pinnata. BLADDER-NUT.—This is not a common plant in this country. I know of no other use to which it is applied, but its being cultivated in nurseries and sold as an ornamental shrub. The seed-vessel, from whence it takes its name, is a curious example of the inflated capsule.
150. TAMARIX gallica. A shrub of large growth; and being less affected by the sea breeze than any others, is useful to form a shelter in situations where the bleak winds will not admit of trees of more tender kinds to flourish.
151. TAXUS baccata. THE YEW.—Was formerly much esteemed for making bows: but since those instruments of war and destruction have given place to the more powerful gun-powder, it is not so much in request. The wood is very hard and durable, and admits of a fine polish. The foliage of Yew is poisonous to cattle, who will readily eat it, if cut and thrown in their way in frosty weather.
152. TILIA europaea. THE LIME or LINDEN-TREE.—Is a very ornamental tree in plantations, and from its early putting forth its leaves is much esteemed. The flowers emit a very fine scent, and the inhabitants of Switzerland make a favourite beverage from them. The wood is very soft, though white and beautiful. It is much used for the ornamental boxes, &c. so well known by the name of Turnbridge-ware.
153. VACCINIUM uliginosum. GREAT BILBERRY. Vaccinium Vitis Idaea, RED WHORTLE-BERRY, and Vaccinium Oxycoccos, CRANBERRY, are all edible fruits, but do not grow in this part of the kingdom. Great quantities of Cranberries are imported every winter and spring from Russia; they are much esteemed by the confectioners for tarts, &c. and are sold at high prices. These three kinds grow only in wet boggy places. A species which is native of America, called Vaccinium macrocarpon, has been very successfully cultivated at Spring Grove by Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. and which has also been attempted in various other places, but not with the same success. The fruit of this species is larger and of better flavour than either of the other kinds.
154. VACCINIUM Myrtillus. WHORTS, or BILBERRIES.—To a common observer this would appear to be a very insignificant shrub; it is not uncommonly met with on our heaths: but it is only in particular places where it fruits in abundance, and in such districts it is of considerable value.
The waste lands on Hindhead and Blackdown in Surry and Sussex are noticed for producing this fruit, which is similar to Black Currants. They are gathered in the months of August and September, and sold at the neighbouring markets.
In a calculation of the value of this plant with an intelligent nurseryman in that county, we found that from 500 l. to 700 l. were earned and realized annually by the neighbouring poor, who employed their families in this labour, and who are in the habit of travelling many miles for this purpose. The fruit is ripe in August, and at that season is met with in great plenty in all the neighbouring towns.
155. VISCUM album. MISSELTO.—A parasitical plant well known, and formerly of much repute in medicine, but wholly disregarded in the present practice. Birdlime is made from the berries.
Dr. Pulteney in tracing the history of Botanic science quotes Pliny for an account of the veneration in which this plant was held by the Druids, who attributed almost divine efficacy to it, and ordained the collecting it with rites and ceremonies not short of the religious strictness which was countenanced by the superstition of the age. It was cut with a golden knife, and when the moon was six days old gathered by the priest, who was clothed with white for the occasion, and the plant received on a white napkin, and two white bulls sacrificed. Thus consecrated, Misselto was held to be an antidote to poison, and prevented sterility. Query, Has not the custom of hanging up Misselto at merry-makings, and the ceremony so well known among our belles, some relation to above sacrifice?
156. ULEX europaeus. COMMON FURZE.—The culture of this shrub is given in the Agricultural Plants, being good for feeding cattle; its principal use however is for fuel, and it is frequently grown for such purposes. It is common on most of our waste lands. It also forms good fences, but should always be kept short and young, otherwise it becomes thin, especially in good land where it grows up and makes large bushes.
157. ULMUS campestris. THE ELM.—We have a number of varieties of the Elm; the most esteemed is that with the smooth bark. The timber has been long in request for water-pipes, and for boards, which are converted into various uses in domestic oeconomy.
158. ULMUS montana. BROAD-LEAVED ELM.—This has not been considered of so great value as the common sort, but it is of much more free growth; and I have been informed that in the West of England the timber has been found to be good and lasting.
* * * * *
The initial letters in this class distinguish the Pharmacopoeia in which each plant is inserted.
"By the wise and unchangeable laws of Nature established by a Being infinitely good and infinitely powerful,—not only man, the lord of the creation, 'fair form who wears sweet smiles, and looks erect on heaven,' but every subordinate being becomes subject to decay and death: pain and disease, the inheritance of mortality, usually accelerate his dissolution. To combat these, to alleviate when it has not the power to avert, Medicine, honoured art! comes to our assistance.
"It will not be expected that we should here give a history of this ancient practice, or draw a parallel betwixt the success of former physicians and those of modern times: all that concerns us to remark is, that the ancients were infinitely more indebted to the vegetable kingdom for the materials of their art than the moderns. Not so well acquainted with the oeconomy of nature, which teaches us that plants were chiefly destined for the food of various animals, they sought in every herb some latent healing virtue, and frequently endeavoured to make up the want of efficacy in one by the combination of numbers: hence the extreme length of their farraginous prescriptions. More enlightened ideas of the operations of medicine have taught the moderns greater simplicity and conciseness in practice. Perhaps there is a danger that this simplicity may be carried to far, and become finally detrimental to the practice."
The above is quoted from the Preface to a Catalogue of Medicinal Plants published by my predecessor in 1783: and it may be observed, that the medical student has, at the present season, a still less number of plants to store up in memory, owing, probably, to the great advances that chemistry has made in the mean time, through which mineral articles in many instances have superseded those of the vegetable kingdom. But, nevertheless, as Dr. Woodville has justly observed, "it would be difficult to show that this preference is supported by any conclusive reasoning drawn from a comparative superiority of the former;" or that the more general use of them has led to greater success in the practice of the healing art. It is however evident, that we have much to regret the almost total neglect of the study of medical botany by the younger branches of the professors of physic, when we are credibly informed that Cow-parsley has been administered for Hemlock, and Foxglove has been substituted for Coltsfoot [Footnote: See the account of a dreadful accident of this nature, in Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1815.], from which circumstance, some valuable lives have been sacrificed. It is therefore high time that those persons who are engaged in the business of pharmacy should be obliged to become so far acquainted with plants, as to be able to distinguish at sight all such as are useful in diet or medicine, and more particularly such as are of poisonous qualities.
The medical student has so many subjects for his consideration, that it is not desirable he should have a greater number of vegetables to consult than are necessary. And we cannot help lamenting the difficulty he has to struggle with in consequence of the great difference of names which the Pharmacopoeias of the present day exhibit. The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, in many instances, enforce the necessity of learning a different term in each for the same thing, and none of which are called by the same they were twenty years ago. Surely it would be the means of forwarding the knowledge of drugs, if each could be distinguished by one general term.
The candidate for medical knowledge, however, is not the only one who has at times to regret this confusion of names. The Linnaean system is an easy and delightful path to the knowledge of plants; but, like all other human structures, it has its imperfections, and some of which have been modified by judicious alterations. Yet the teachers of this science, as well as the students, have often to deprecate the unnecessary change in names which has been made by many writers, though., in many cases, no more reason appears for it than there generally would be to change Christian and surnames of persons.
In the following section, I shall enumerate and describe those plants which are contained in the lists of the three colleges; and afterwards a separate list of those which, although they have been expunged, are still sometimes used by medical men.
I shall also endeavour to give such descriptions as are concise, at the same time sufficient for general knowledge, and for which reason I have taken Lewis's Materia Medica for my text, unless where improvements have been made in certain subjects I have consulted more modern authorities. It should be observed, that writers on medical plants, with few exceptions, have copied from one another: or with a little alteration as to words only.
And as some vegetables, from their affinitiy, may be confounded with others, whereby those possessing medical qualities may be substituted for others having none, or even poisonous ones, I shall in some instances enumerate a list of similar plants, which, with attention to their botanical characters, it is hoped will prevent those dangerous errors we have lately witnessed. As it is our business, in demonstrating plants, to guard the student against such confusion, it will be proper that specimens of such as come under this head be preserved, as a work for reference and contrast wherever doubts may arise.
158. ACONITUM Napellus. COMMON BLUE MONKSHOOD. The Leaves. L. E.—Every part of the fresh plant is strongly poisonous, but the root is unquestionably the most powerful, and when chewed at first imparts a slight sensation of acrimony, and a pungent heat of the lips, gums, palate and fauces, which is succeeded by a general tremor and sensation of chilliness.
This plant has been generally prepared as an extract or inspissated juice, after the manner directed in the Edinburgh and many of the foreign Pharmacopoeias, and, like all virulent medicines, it should be first administered in small doses. Stoerck recommends two grains of the extract to be rubbed into a powder with two drums of sugar, and as a dose to begin with ten grains of this powder two or three times a-day.
Similar Plants.—Aconitum japonicum; A. pyrenaicum; Delphinium elatum;D. exallatum.
Instead of the extract, a tincture has been made of the dried leaves macerated in six times their weight of spirit of wine, and forty drops given for a dose.—Woodville's Med. Bot. 965.
The Dublin College has ordered the Aconitum Neomontanum, which is not common in this country [Footnote: In plants of so very poisonous a nature as the Aconite, it is the duty of every one who describes them to be particular. Here seems to have been a confusion. The A. Neomontanum is figured in Jacquin's Fl. Austriaca, fasc. 4. p. 381; and the first edition of Hortus Kewensis under A. Napellus erroneously quotes that figure: but both Gmelin in Syst. Vegetabilium, p. 838, and Wildenow in Spec. Plant. p. 1236, quote it under its proper name, A. Neomontanum. Now the fact is, that the Napellus is the Common Blue Monkshood; and the Neomontanum is altogether left out of the second edition of the Hortus Kewensis for the best of all reasons, it is not in this country; or, if it is, it must be very scarce, and, of course, not the plant used in medicine.].
160. ACORCUS Calamus. SWEET RUSH. The Root. L.—It is generally looked upon as a carminative and stomachic medicine, and as such is sometimes made use of in practice. It is said by some to be superior in aromatic flavour to any other vegetable that is produced in these northern climates; but such as I have had an opportunity of examining, fell short, in this respect, of several of our common plants. It is, nevertheless, a sufficiently elegant aromatic. It used to be an ingredient in the Mithridate and Theriaca of the London Pharmacopoeia, and in the Edinburgh. The fresh root candied after the manner directed in our Dispensatory for candying eryngo root, is said to be employed at Constantinople as a preservative against epidemic diseases. The leaves of this plant have a sweet fragrant smell, more agreeable, though weaker, than that of the roots.—Lewis's Mat. Med.
161. AESCULUS Hippocastanum. HORSE-CHESNUT. The Bark and Seed. E. D.— With a view to its errhine power, the Edinburgh College has introduced the seeds into the Materia Medica, as a small portion of the powder snuffed up the nostrils readily excites sneezing; even the infusion or decoction of this fruit produces this effect; it has therefore been recommended for the purpose of producing a discharge from the nose, which, in some complaints of the head and eyes is found to be of considerable benefit.
On the continent, the Bark of the Horse Chesnut-tree is held in great estimation as a febrifuge; and, upon the credit of several respectable authors, appears to be a medicine of great efficacy.—Woodville's Med. Bot. 615.
162. AGRIMONIA Eupatoria. COMMON AGRIMONY. The Herb. D.—The leaves have an herbaceous, somewhat acrid, roughish taste, accompanied with an aromatic flavour. Agrimony is said to be aperient, detergent, and to strengthen the tone of the viscera: hence it is recommended in scorbutic disorders, in debility and laxity of the intestines, &c. Digested in whey, it affords an useful diet-drink for the spring season, not ungrateful to the palate or stomach.
163. ALLIUM Porrum. LEEK. The Root. L.—This participates of the virtues of garlic, from which it differs chiefly in being much weaker. See the article ALLIUM.
164. ALLIUM sativum. GARLIC. The Root. L. E. D.—This pungent root warms and stimulates the solids, and attenuates tenacious juices. Hence in cold leucophelgmatic habits it proves a powerful expectorant, diuretic, and emmenagogue; and, if the patient is kept warm, sudorific. In humoral asthmas, and catarrhous disorders of the breast, in some scurvies, flatulent colics, hysterical and other diseases proceeding from laxity of the solids, and cold sluggish indisposition of the fluids, it has generally good effects: it has likewise been found serviceable in some hydropic cases. Sydenham relates, that he has known the dropsy cured by the use of garlic alone; he recommends it chiefly as a warm strengthening medicine in the beginning of the disease.
Garlic made into an unguent with oils, &c. and applied externally, is said to resolve and discuss cold tumors, and has been by some greatly esteemed in cutaneous diseases. It has likewise sometimes been employed as a repellent. Sydenham assures us, that among all the substances which occasion a derivation or revulsion from the head, none operate more powerfully than garlic applied to the soles of the feet: hence he was led to make use of it in the confluent small-pox about the eighth day, after the face began to swell; the root cut in pieces, and tied in a linen cloth, was applied to the soles, and renewed once a day till all danger was over.
165. ALLIUM Cepa. ONION. The Root. D.—These roots are considered rather as articles of food than of medicine: they are supposed to afford little or no nourishment, and when eaten liberally they produce flatulencies, occasion thirst, headachs, and turbulent dreams: in cold phlegmatic habits, where viscid mucus abounds, they doubtless have their use; as by their stimulating quality they tend to excite appetite, attenuate thick juices, and promote their expulsion: by some they are strongly recommended in suppressions of urine and in dropsies. The chief medicinal use of onions in the present practice is in external applications, as a cataplasm for suppurating tumours, &c.
166. ALTHAEA officinalis. MARSH-MALLOW. The Leaves and Root. L.—This plant has the general virtues of an emollient medicine; and proves serviceable in a thin acrimonious state of the juices, and where the natural mucus of the intestines is abraded. It is chiefly recommended in sharp defluxions upon the lungs, hoarseness, dysenteries, and likewise in nephritic and calculous complaints; not, as some have supposed, that this medicine has any peculiar power of dissolving or expelling the calculus; but as, by lubricating and relaxing the vessels, it procures a more free and easy passage. Althaea root is sometimes employed externally for softening and maturing hard tumours: chewed, it is said to give ease in difficult dentition of children.
The officinal preparations are:-Decoctio Althaeae officinalis, and SyrupusAlthaeae.
Similar Plants.—Malva officinalis; M. rotundifolia; M. mauritanica;Lavatera arborscens.
This root gives name to an officinal syrup [L. E.] and ointment [L.] and is likewise an ingredient in the compound powder of gum tragacanth [L. E.] and the oil and plaster of mucilages [L.] though it does not appear to communicate any particular virtue to the two last, its mucilaginous matter not being dissoluble in oils.—Lewis's Mat. Med.
167. AMYGDALUS communis. SWEET and BITTER ALMONDS. L. E. D.—The oils obtained by expression from both sorts of almonds are in their sensible qualities the same. The general virtues of these oils are, to blunt acrimonious humours, and to soften and relax the solids: hence their use internally, in tickling coughs, heat of urine, pains and inflammations: and externally in tension and rigidity of particular parts.
168. ANCHUSA tinctoria. ALKANET-ROOT. E. D.—Alkanet-root has little or no smell: when recent, it has a bitterish astringent taste, but when dried scarcely any. As to its virtues, the present practice expects not any from it. Its chief use is for colouring oils, unguents, and plasters. As the colour is confined to the cortical part, the small roots are best, these having proportionally more bark than the large.
169. ANETHUM graveolens. DILL. The Seeds. L.—Their taste is moderately warm and pungent; their smell aromatic, but not of the most agreeable kind. These seeds are recommended as a carminative, in flatulent colics proceeding from a cold cause or a viscidity of the juices. The most efficacious preparations of them are, the distilled oil, and a tincture or extract made with rectified spirit. The oil and simple water distilled from them are kept in the shops.—Lewis.
170. ANETHUM Foeniculum. FENNEL. Seeds. E.—These are supposed to be stomachic and carminative; but this, and indeed all the other effects ascribed to them, as depending upon their stimulant and aromatic qualities, must be less considerable than those of Dill, Aniseed, or Caraway, though termed one of the four greater hot seeds.—Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 129.
171. ANGELICA Archangelica. GARDEN ANGELICA. The Root, Leaves, and Seeds. E.—All the parts of Angelica, especially the roots, have a fragrant aromatic smell, and a pleasant bitterish warm taste, glowing upon the lips and palate for a long time after they have been chewed. The flavour of the seeds and leaves is very perishable, particularly that of the latter, which, on being barely dried, lose greatest part of their taste and smell: the roots are more tenacious of their flavour, though even these lose part of it upon keeping. The fresh root, wounded early in the spring, yields and odorous yellow juice, which slowly exsiccated proves an elegant gummy resin, very rich in the virtues of the Angelica. On drying the root, this juice concretes into distinct moleculae, which, on cutting it longitudinally, appear distributed in little veins: in this state they are extracted by pure spirit, but not by watery liquors.
This resin is considered one of the most elegant aromatics of European growth, though little regarded in the present practice, and is rarely met with in prescription; neither does it enter any officinal composition.
172. ANTHEMIS nobilis. CHAMOMILE. The Flowers. L.E.D.—These have a strong not ungrateful, aromatic smell, but a very bitter nauseous taste. They are accounted carminative, aperient, emollient, and in some measure anodyne: and stand recommended in flatulent colics, for promoting the uterine purgations, in spasmodic affections, and the pains of women in child-bed: sometimes they have been employed in intermittent fevers, and the nephritis. These flowers are also frequently used externally in discutient and antiseptic fomentations, and in emollient glysters. The double-flowered variety is usually cultivated for medicine, but the wild kind with single flowers is preferable.
Similar Plants.—Anthemis arvensis; A. Cotula; Pyrethrum maritimum.
173. ANTHEMIS Pyrethrum. PELLITORY OF SPAIN. The Root. L.—The principal use of Pyrethrum in the present practice is as a masticatory, for promoting the salival flux, and evacuating viscid humours from the head and neighbouring parts: by this means it very generally relieves the tooth-ach, pains of the head, and lethargic complaints. If a piece of the root, the size of a pea, be placed against the tooth, it instantly causes the saliva to flow from the surrounding glands, and gives immediate relief in all cases of that malady.
174. APIUM Petroselium. COMMON PARSLEY. The Root. E.—Both the roots and seeds of Parsley are directed by the London College for medicinal use: the former have a sweetish taste, accompanied with a slight warmth of flavour somewhat resembling that of a carrot; the latter are in taste warmer and more aromatic than any other part of the plant, and also manifest considerable bittenress.
These roots are said to be aperient and diuretic, and have been employed in apozems to relieve nephritic pains, and obstructions of urine.
Although Parsley is commonly used at table, it is remarkable that facts have been adducted to prove, that in some constitutions it occasions epilepsy, or at least aggravates the epileptic fit in those who are subject to this disease. It has been supposed also to produce inflammation in the eyes.—Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 43. A variety which produces larger roots, called Hamburgh Parsley, is commonly grown for medicinal uses.
175. ARBUTUS Uva Ursi. TRAILING ARBUTUS or BEAR-BERRY. The Leaves.—This first drew the attention of physicians as an useful remedy in calculous and nephritic affections; and in the years 1763 and 1764, by the concurrent testimonies of different authors, it acquired remarkable celebrity, not only for its efficacy in gravelly complaints, but in almost every other to which the urinary organs are liable, as ulcers of the kidneys and bladder, cystirrhoea, diabetes, &c. It may be employed either in powder or decoction; the former is most commonly preferred, and given in doses from a scruple to a dram two or three times a-day.— Woodville's Med. Botany.
176. ARNICA montana. MOUNTAIN ARNICA. The whole Plant. E. D.—The odour of the fresh plant is rather unpleasant, and the taste acrid, herbaceous, and astringent; and the powdered leaves act as a strong sternutatory.
This plant, according to Bergius, is an emetic, errhine, diuretic, diaphoretic, emmenagogue; and from its supposed power of attenuating the blood, it has been esteemed so peculiarly efficacious in obviating the bad consequences occasioned by falls and bruises, that it obtained the appellation of Panacea Lapsorum.—Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 43.
177. ARTEMISIA Absinthium. WORMWOOD, The Herb. L.—Wormwood is a strong bitter; and was formerly much used as such against weakness of the stomach, and the like, in medicated wines and ales. At present it is rarely employed in these intentions, on account of the ill relish and offensive smell which it is accompanied with. These it may be in part freed from by keeping, and totally by long coction, the bitter remaining entire. An extract made by boiling the leaves in a large quantity of water, and evaporating the liquor with a strong fire, proves a bitter sufficiently grateful, without any disgustful flavour.
178. ARTEMISIA Abrotanum. SOUTHERNWOOD. Leaves. D.—Southernwood has a strong, not very disagreeable smell; and a nauseous, pungent, bitter taste; which is totally extracted by rectified spirit, less perfectly by watery liquors. It is recommended as an anthelmintic; and in cold lencophlegmatic habits, as a stimulant, detergent, aperient, and sudorific. The present practice has almost entirely confined its use to external applications. The leaves are frequently employed in discutient and antiseptic fomentations; and have been recommended also in lotions and unguents for cutaneous eruptions, and the falling off of the hair.
179. ARTEMISIA maritima. SEA WORMWOOD. Tops. D.—In taste and smell, it is weaker and less unpleasant than the common worm-wood. The virutes of both are supposed to be of the same kind, and to differ only in strength.
The tops used to enter three of our distilled waters, and give name to a conserve. They are an ingredient also in the common fomentation and green oil.
180. ARTEMISIA Santonica. ROMAN WORMWOOD. Seeds. E. D.—It is a native of the warmer countries, and at present difficultly procurable in this, though as hardy and as easily raised as any of the other sorts. Sea wormwood has long supplied its place in the markets, and been in general mistaken for it.
Roman wormwood is less ungrateful than either of the others: its smell is tolerably pleasant: the taste, though manifestly bitter, scarcely disagreeable. It appears to be the most eligible of the three as a stomachic; and is likewise recommended by some in dropsies.