OCR Text |
Show ARTICHOKE. 675 MEDICAL USE. The leaves and stalks of the artichoke contain bitter juice, which is very diuretic, and has long been esteemed a good re- medy for evacuating the water of dropsies by urine. This juice is got by mashing the leaves and stalks, and then squeezing them in a press; andafterwards by straining it through a cloth: it is commonly ordered to be mixed with white wine, and is given from half an ounce to an ounce for a dose; which is repeated twice or thrice in the day, as the stomach will bear it. The leaves and stalks enter as an ingredient into many of the diuretic decoctions, which are prepared by the country people in many of the counties. The following decoction, the preparation of which was long kept as a secret by a person at Ando- Yer, is said to have carried off the water from several people labouring under the dropsy :—Take of artichoke leaves and stalks, three handfuls; of bruised juniper berries, one quart ; of scraped horse-radish, one handful; of green fir tops, two handfuls; of bruised white mustard seed, two table spoonfuls : mix the whole, and boil them in two gallons of water to one, ARTICHOKE. CYNARA SCOLYMUS. Class XIX. Essent. Gen. Cuar. scales fleshy at the feathery. Spec. Cuar. Leaves of the calyx ovate. andstrain the liquor through a cloth. A grownperson is to take Syngenesia. OrderI. Polygamia equalis. Receptacle bristly: Calyx dilated, imbricate, the base, emarginate with a small point: Down sessile, prickly or unarmed, pinnate and undivided: Scales Ee DESCRIPTION. Tus plant rises three or four feet. Leaves large, on the upper part smooth, beneath reticulate, hoary, and downy. Flowers terminal. Calyx common, globular, composed of numerous scales, at the base thick and fleshy, the part we cat, and above mem- branous, notched, with a spinous point in the centre. Florets of the corolla blue, each cut in five thin segments, tubular at bottom. Seeds oblong, furnished with a feathery pappus, on @ fleshy receptacle, a part we eat, called the bottom; the young flower we call the choke. HISTORY. Native of the south of Europe, flowering in August. half a pint morning and evening, adding a little syrup or sugar if agreeable. Geoffroy, in his Materia Medica, mentions the root of the artichoke as a powerful diuretic; and recommends decoctions or broths made with it ag good for promoting a discharge by urine, |