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Show COMMON MASTERWORT. 99 situations; hence the shops are supplied with it from the Alps and Pyrenees, At VIRTUES. This plant is omitted in our Pharmacopceias, notwithstanding its boastful name,—‘‘ Imperatoria ob raras et prestantes facul- ee Sy oh ia A EHS aeaa aes tates nominata fuit,”—(Bauhin. Pin. 1. c.) and although Hoffmanncalls it a divine remedy, ‘* remedium divinum,”—Officin. b. ii. c. 116. Having so few plants accepted, we should be unwilling to part with this without further inquiry. Alston says its root is aromatic, and leaves a pungencyin the mouth for more thananhour. Haller relates, that it is beneficial in diseases of the chest arising from a load of mucus, andof course in the pituitous asthma; and in those diseases arising from defective girculation, as chlorosis and dropsy ; and it has succeededin a quartan ague even after the cinchona had failed. What is more extraordinary, he adds, employed in the form of a clyster it facilitates parturition; the same also when taken inwardly. It expels worms. A drachm of the root in substance, and a drachmin 7| COMMON MASTERWORT. IMPERATORIA OSTRUTHIUM. Class V. Pentandria. Order 11. Digynia. Fruit subrotund, compressed, gibbous in the middle, Cuan. Gen. Essent. boundat the margin: Petals inflexo-marginate. Spec. Caan. None, as this is at present the only species. —_—_—_—SEE DESCRIPTION. Tus plant rises to two feet. The root is perennial, large) succulent, tapering. The stalk is striated, and round. The leaves are three together, and the terminalleaf is often vee into rthree lobes. These are placed on a long footstalk, whichte general no minates in a sheathing covering to the stalk. Thereis involucre, the partial is composed of one or two leaves. HISTORY. Masterwort may be considered as a native of Scotland, being g found there by Mr. Lightfoot. It is frequently og a tt r inferio gardens, but the root so producedis greatly inous mounta in lly especia , growing in the south of Europe infusion, is the quantity directed to be taken four times a day. |