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Show BURDOCK. 679 scaly heads, which stick to the clothes, a circumstance from which the word Lappais supposedto be derived *. MEDICAL VIRTUE. The pharmacopceias direct the root for medical use: it has no smell, but tastes sweetish, and mixed as it were with a slight bitterishness and roughness. Its virtue, according to Bergius, is mundificans, diuretica, diaphoretica + ; and many instances are upon record in which it has been successfully employed in a great variety of chronic diseases, as scurvy, rheumatism, gout, lues venerea t+, and pulmonic complaints. We have never had an opportunity of observing the effects of this root, except as a diuretic, and in this way we have known it succeed in two drop- sical cases, where other powerful medicines had been ineffectually used: and as it neither excites nausea nor increases irrita- tion, it may occasionally deserve a trial where moreactive remedies are improper. The seeds also possess a diuretic quality, and have been given with advantage in the dose of a drachm in calculous and nephritic complaints, and in the form of emulsion asa pectoral. The root is generally used in decoction, which may be made by boiling two ounces of the fresh root in three pints of water to two, which, when intended as a diuretic, should be taken in the course of two days, or if possible in twenty-four hours. —Woodville. BURDOCK. ARCTIUM LAPPA. * Lappa dici potest vel azo re Abs» prehendere, vel Auarew lambere, Class XIX. Syngenesia. Ray, l. c. Order 1, Polygamia zequalis. Essent. Gen. Cuar. Receptacle chaffy: Calyx globular, the scales ending in an incurved hook: Seed crowned with chaffybristles, Spec. Cuar. Stem-leaves heart-shaped, petioled, denticulate: Calyz The young stems of this plant, strippedof their rind, are boiled and eaten like asparagus, When raw, they are good with oil and vinegar.— Wither smooth. —— mg, 864, Ic. DESCRIPTION, Tus plant rises three feet. Stem purplish : branches alter- nate. Leaves also alternate, heart-shaped, veiny ; above of 4 dark green, beneath whitish. Lower leaves very large, stand- ing upon long footstalks, grooved like the stem. Flowers nu- merous, generally ending inpairs. HISTORY. + Mat. Med, 653. t Henricus III. Galliarum Rex, a Petro Pend decocto radicum Lappa ab hac lue sanatus fuit. Vide Reverius, Obs, 41. 7 This plant is common in waste grounds and road sides 5 it flowers in July and August, and is well known by the burs, oF |