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Show COMMON LADIES-8MOCK. When daisies pied and violets blue, And lady-smocks all silver-white, And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight. Violets and daisies we know; but the other two have given origin to conjecture. Berkenhout says, I never sawsilver white lady-smocks ; and the Lychuis flos cuculi is red, Nevertheless the poet might have easily called this flower by that name ; for, as Dr. Smith observes, “they are very abundant in the moist part of meadows, and at a distance look like large white patches, re. sembling the inner female garment hung out to bleach.” The cuckoo-buds were either cowslips er butter-cups, which are quite immaterial; but more probablythe latter, as these flowers are called cuckoo-buds in Staffordshire. MEDICAL USE, It is a warm plant, and has been. esteemed to be a powerful diuretic. Galen and manyauthors allege thatit possesses the same virtues as the water-cresses. Dale, in his Pharmacologia, mentions that its flower is recommended in convulsive disor- ders in a manuscript of Dr. Tancred Robinson’s ;_ and Sir George Baker, president of the College of Physicians, has men. tioned, in the first volume of Medical Transactions, some ner- vous andhysteric cases in which he administered the flowers with good effect. The dose is half a drachm to two drachms of the powdered flowers, given twice a day. St. Vitus’s dance, and spasmodic asthma, haveyielded to these flow ers. Dr, Withering says, The virtue of the flowers of this plant in hysteric and epi- leptic cases was first mentioned by Rayin his Letters, as appears from their publication, They do not act like the Erysimum cheiranthoides, which is called treacle wormseed, from the seeds destroying worms; and thus cure the epilepsies of children by destroying the worms in the stomach and intestines, which is often the causeof fits. I have accounts of the success of this plant in recent cases from good authority, but have never been fortunate enough tosee it cure hysterical affections. Whilst in Cornwall, in the year 1793, I hadthe pleasure of meeting with the Rev. Mr. Gregor, who told me, that the flowering tops of the ladies-smock had been Successfully used by ‘his family for Some generations in the cure of epilepsies ; which he mentioned to me were not likely to from worms. Dr. Woodville says, In epilepsy been generally found unsuccessful. Can this and some cases, have proceeded this remedy has arise from our medical brethren only using the leaves, whereas Mr. Gregor used the flowering tops? HEDGE MUSTARD. ERYSIMUM OFFICINALE. Class XV. Tetradynamia. Order I. Siliquosa. Essent. Gen. CHAR. Siliqua columnar, exactly quadrangular: closed, Spec. CuaR. Siliquas pressed to the stalk: Leaves runcinated. ae Calyx DESCRIPTION. Srarx two feet in height. Leaves rough, downy, pinnatifid, segments toothed: teeth large. Flowers small, yellow, placed in long spikes, and numerous at the top. HISTORY. Common on dry banks and barren places; flowers from June till September. MEDICAL USE. This plant is strongly recommendedin chronical coughs and hoarseness. Dr. Cullen recommends for these disorders the juice of the Erysimum mixed with equal quantity of honey and sugar, and a spoonful to be taken frequently during the day. Vide also p. 613, on the syrup of horse-radish. |