OCR Text |
Show VERONICA BECABUNGA. oo ers of a beautiful sky-blue colour, divided into four segments at the edge, and are succeeded by smail seed-vessels, flat and of a eye Nn It grows in great abundance with us, the com white colour. panion of water cresses, and propagates itself very quickly by the spreading ofits root. HISTORY. This plant is thus described in the New Edinburgh Dispene. ee ae pe kind of cordated form, in’ which are lodged a numberof small seeds in two cells. The root is small and creeping, and of a satory: This is a low perennial plant, commonin little rivulets and ditches of standing water, and flowering in July. The leaves remain all the winter, but are in greatest perfection in the spring. Their taste is herbaceous, with a very light bitterness *, MEDICAL USE. If any goodeffects be expecied from brooklime, it should be used as food. As having a bland mild juice, its leaves form a proper corrective of fiery vegetables, whose pungencythese tend to lessen, and the juice of the whole herb not improperly enters into the composition of the Compounn Juice or Scurvy-GRAss {Succus Cochleariz compositus, olim Succi Scorbutici, P. L.), which see under the article Scurvy-grass, as a bland corrective, yet not as having much medicinal virtue. Rutty says that its juice is saponaceous, and taken in large quantity opens the bodyin the easiest manner. Dioscorides mentions a use that deserves the attention of modern practitioners. ‘¢ Folia in vino pota, stranguria et vesica scabie laborantibus opitulantur ;?? its leaves drunk in wine relieve the strangury, and diseases of the bladder. Thejuice is said neither to turn sour or putrid by keeping, and can be only esteemedas a mild refrigerant. * Authors report, “calculum renum et vesice expellit, menses ciet, foetum mortuumejicit !” Sofilled with lies are the Materia Medica! GRATIOLA OFFICINALIS. HEDGE-HYSSOP. Class 11. Diandria, Order ¥. Monogynia. Essent. Gen. Car. Calyx seven-leaved, the two outer patulous irregular, reversed: Stamina two barren: Capsule two-celled, Spec. Cuar, Leaves lanceolate, serrate: Flowers peduncled. a DESCRIPTION. Tur stalks of this plant are erect, and have frequent knots or Joints ; they rise to ten or twelve inches high: the leaves stand in pairs at the joints, are of an oblong figure, an inch in length, and morethan half aninch in breadth : they are smooth, and extremely bitter to the taste: from the ale of these leaves arise flowers standing sin gly; they are tubular, consisting of a single petal, and perforated behind. In their hind part they are bent like a horn, and of a yellow colour, striped with brown streaks; they are two thirds of aninch in length, and about. a quarter of an inchin diameter, and at the front are divided into two lips of a pale purplish colour, standing far asunder: the upper lip is of he shape of a heart, and bent upwards: the lower One ts divided into three segments ; the cup is divided into five segments » and the flower is succeed eran ed bya single fruit of aroundish figure, but pointed, ,of apale purple colour 1 , divided into twe cells andfilled with minute seeds. |