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Show LOVAGE-LEAVED BUBON, 99] HISTORY. LOVAGE-LEAVED BUBON. BUBON GALBANUM. Class V. Pentandria. Order Il. Digynia. Essent. GEN. Caan. Fruit ovate, striate, villous. Spec. Cuan. Leaves sharply-serrate, rhomboidal, subtrilobed. ee DESCRIPTION. A survs rising several feet. Leaves compound, rising oe the sheaths of the stem, subtripinnated. Simple leaves rhom “7 dal, acute, of a sea-green colour, veined, irregularly yale at the base entire; some of the leaves upon the upper brane 7 are somewhat wedge-shaped. The principal umbel 7 the stem, composed of numerous radii; the lateral ete grow upon slender branches. Leaflets of the general on about twelve, narrow, lanceolate, of the partial six, of the shape, and spreading. Seeds two, oval, with smooth une surfaces, and marked with three elevated lines. This plant is perennial, and grows in Africa. It abound s with a milky juice, which sometimes exudes from the joints of the old plants, but is more frequently obtained by cutting them across some inches above the root. The juice which flows from the wound soon hardens, andis the galbanum whichis brough t to us from Syria and the Levant. The best sort of galbanum consists of pale-colouredpieces, about the size of a hazel-nut, which, on being broken, appear to be composed of clear white tears, of a bitterish acridtaste, and a strong peculiar smell. But it most commonly occurs in agglutinated masses, composedof yellowish orreddish andclea r white tears, which may be easily torn asunder, of the consist. ence of firm wax, softening by heat, and becoming brittle by cold, and mixed with seeds and leaves. What is mixed with sand, earth, and other impurities, and is of a brown or blackis h colour, interspersed with no white grains, of a'weak smell, and of a consistence always soft, is bad. Galbanumis almost entirely soluble in water, but the solution is milky ; but neither wine nor vinegar dissolves it perfectly. Alcohol, according to Hagen, has very little action upon it. It is not fusible ; but furnishes a considerable proportion of essen- tial oil when distilled with water. Neumann obtaine d bydiStillation with water six drachms of oil, besides what remained dissolved in the water. The watery extract amount ed to about three ounces. It was somewhat nauseous, but could not have Deen recognised as a preparation of galbanum. From the same quantity alcohol extracted upwards of nine ounces anda half of 4 hardbrittle insipid inodorous substance (resin ?). MEDICAL VIRTUES, Galbanum, medicinally considered, may be said to hold a middle rank between assafeetida and ammoniacum; but its fotidness is very inconsiderable, especially when compared with the former ; it is therefore accounted less antispasmodic, noris supposed to affect the bronchial glands so much as to have ex- Pectorant powers equal to those of thelatter: it has the credit, however, I Tomoting of being more useful in hysterical disorders, and of and correcting various secretions and uterine disv2~ |