OCR Text |
Show 98 COMMON FUMITORY. bitters are prescribed ; but its remarkable virtues are those of clearing the skin of many disorders. For this it has been much commended ; and I have myself experienced its goodeffects in many instances of cutaneous affections, which I would call Lepra. [have commonly usedit by expressing the juice, and giving that to two ounces twice a day: but I find the virtues remain in the dried plant, so that they may be extracted by infusion or de. coction in water; and the foreign dispensatories have prepared an extract of it, to which they ascribe all the virtues of the fresh plant.” Dr. Rutty, in his Observations on the London and Edinburgh Dispensatories, with an Account of the Virtues of various Sub. jects of the Materia Medica rejected by one or both of those Works, says, speaking of this plant, “¢ It is justly adopted by the Edinburgh Dispensatory, being possessed of a considerable degree of bitterness and acrimony, and has the sanction of ancient and modern authority for its virtues in cutaneous cases ; for which purpose it ought to be given in the juice or infusion RATTLESNAKE ROOT, in whey, its acrimony being volatile.” OR MILKWORT. POLYGALA SENEGA. Class XVII. Diadelphia, Essent. Gen. Cuar. Order III, Octandria, Calyx five-leaved, two of them wing-shaped, co= loured ; Legume obcordate, two-celled. Spec. Cuar, Flowers beardless, spiked: Stem erect, herbaceous, most simple: Leaves oblong-lanceolate. eee DESCRIPTION. % Tins plant rises nearly a foot. Leaves acutely pointed, alternate, on short foot-stalks. Flowers small, white, papilionaceous, terminal. HISTORY. Seneka is a perennial plant, which grows wild in North Ame. Mca, particularly Virginia and Pennsylvania. This root is usually about the thickness of the little finger, variously bent and con. torted, and appears as if composed of joints, whenceit is supe |