Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

Leaves concave at the base, serratures accuminate. Bunch with leaves interspersed, which is not the case with the other species. Linn. Florulleaves awl-shaped, a pair beneath each division of the fruit-stalks. Woodw. Blossom dusky purple, inverted. (Calyx pubescent. E.)

BALM-LEAVED FIGWORT. Watery places and hedges. Sea-shore about St. Ives, Cornwall: (where Messrs. Edward Llhwyd, Hudson, Dickson, and others are reported to have gathered this very rare plant: and we find by an insertion in Camden's Britannia, that Mr. E. Forster, jun. supposed he had discovered a new habitat in Hertfordshire; this, however, proves a mistake, his plant being only a variety of S. nodosa; and we suspect. S. Scorodonia should be altogether considered as a mere interloper; the Jersey station certainly having little more claim for insertion here than Gibraltar. E.) P. July-Aug. Leaves oblong-heart-shaped, three-ribbed at the base, angles of the stem acute: (root tuberous. E.)

S. NODO'SA.

(Fl. Dan. 1167-E. Bot. 1544. E.)-Kniph. 2-Ludw. 72-Gunn. ii. 4. 1Blackw. 87-Fuchs. 194-J. B. iii. 421-Riv. Mon. 107. 1, Scrophularia— Matth. 1130-Dod. 50. 1-Lob. Obs. 289. 1, and Ic. i. 533. 2—Ger. Em. 716. 1-Park. 610. 1—H. Ox. v. 8, row 3. 3-Pet. 35. 9—Ger. 579. 2— Trag. 184-Lonic. i. 135. 3.

Stem, (two or three feet high. E.) angles sometimes edged with a membranous line, but not to be called winged. Leaves imperfectly heartshaped, the base being rather cut transversely. Crantz. Leaves and serratures pointed. Flowers on forked branches. Floral-leaves spearshaped, taper-pointed, a pair to each flowering branch. Woodw. Upperleaves nearly sessile, spear-shaped. Fruit-stalks cylindrical, with short pellucid hairs terminated by globules. Calyx toothed and membranous at the end. Blossom tube filled at the base with a honey-like liquor. Upper segments dusky purple; the rest pale green: the two lateral ones expanding; the lower rolled back. The little heart-shaped segment within the base of the two upper segments seems to deserve the name of nectary. Capsule sometimes with three or four cells. (Root large, consisting of roundish knobs, which are said to disappear as the plant attains maturity. E.)

KNOTTY-ROOTED FIGWORT. KERNELWORT. (Irish: Faruh Duh. Welsh: Deulen ddû dda; Gornerth. E.) Woods and moist hedges.

P. July.* S. AQUATICA. Leaves heart-shaped, blunt, on decurrent leaf-stalks: angles of the stem membranous: (root fibrous. E.)

(Curt. 291-E. Bot. 854. E.)-Kniph. 11-Blackw. 86-Fl. Dan. 507Dod. 50. 2-Lob. Obs. 288. 1, and Ic. i. 533. 1—Ger. Em. 715-Park. 613 -Pet. 35. 10-H. Ox. v. 8, row 3. 4-Ger. 579. 1.

Figwort is hardly known in modern practice; but the rank smell, and bitter taste of the leaves seem to indicate active properties.-Swine that have the scab are cured by washing them with a decoction of the leaves. Wasps resort greatly to the flowers; (both species are supposed also to yield much honey to bees. E.) Goats eat it. Cows, horses, sheep, and swine refuse it. (Gerard, who was not remarkably addicted to incredulity, contents himself with giving the salutary warning, that "Divers do rasbly teach, that if it be hanged about the necke, or else caried about one, it keepeth a man in health:" from which we may infer, that its more ostensible virtues were even then by no means unequivocal, or, at least, little understood. E.)

(Plant strong smelling. E.) Stem smooth, quadrangular, three or four feet high. Leaves heart-egg-shaped, scolloped, (veiny. E.) Panicle naked, branched; the lower branches opposite, the upper alternate, forked. Floral-leaves awl-shaped, a pair at the base of each branch. Woodw. Upper-leaves egg-shaped. Flowers dingy red, (tube greenish. E.) WATER BETONY or FIGWORT. (Welsh: Gorneth y dur. E.) Watery places, and banks of rivers. P. July-Sept.* S. VERNA LIS. Leaves heart-shaped, (pubescent: E.) those of the stem ternate: fruit-stalks axillary, solitary, forked, leafy: (blossom without an inner lobe. E.)

(Hook. Fl. Lond. 70-E. Bot. 567. E.)-Fl. Dan. 411-Riv. Mon. 107. 2, Scrophularia flore lut.-Barr. 273-Clus. ii. 38. 1-Ger. Em. 717-Park. 60S. 4-C. B. Pr. 112.

(Herb pubescent. Blossom egg-shaped, yellow, the fine clefts nearly equal, mouth contracted. E.) Leaves doubly serrated. Fruit-stalks, primary ones longer than the leaves, the secondary short. Floral-leaves spearshaped, a pair at the base of the secondary fruit-stalks. Woodw. (Stem quadrangular, sometimes pentagonal, hollow, one to two feet high. E.) YELLOW FIGWORT. Watery places and hedges. Near Mitcham, Surry. Hudson. Gloddaeth, Carnarvonshire. Fornham, near Bury. Mr. Woodward. (About Newburgh, near Coxwould, Yorkshire. Rev. Archdeacon Pierson. Fl. Brit. About Llanforda, the seat of Sir W. W. Wynne. Merionethshire. Bingley. Moist hedges by the road-side between Sampford and Hempsted, plentifully. Mr. E. Forster, jun. Bot. Guide. By the side of the iron rail-way from Merton to Wandsworth. Mr. Graves. In great abundance on a bank near Cley, Norfolk. Hooker. Old walls near Hatton. Maughan. Grev. Edin. E.) B. April-April.t DIGITA'LIS. Cal. with five divisions: Bloss. bell-shaped : five-cleft, gibbous beneath: Caps. egg-shaped, twocelled, many-seeded.

D. PURPU'REA. Segments of the calyx egg-shaped, acute: blossom obtuse, upper lip nearly entire.

(Lindley 2. E.)—Riv. Mon. 104, Digitalis-Curt.-(E. Bot. 1297. E.)Woodv. 24-Fl. Dan. 74-Tourn. 73. A. E. L. M.-Fuchs. 893-Trag. 889-J. B. ii. 812. 3-Lonic. i. 74. 1-Blackw. 16-Dod. 169-Lob. Obs. 308. 2. Ic. i. 572. 1-Ger. Em. 790. 1-Park. 653. 1-Ger. 646. 1-Lob. Ic. i. 572. 2-H. Ox. v. 8, row 1. 1-Swert. 6. 1 and 2. (Stem upright, rod-like, three or four feet high, pubescent, leafy, nearly cylindrical. Capsules acuminate. Leaves large, rugose, reticulated with prominent veins underneath, scolloped; teeth small, deep. Leaf-stalks half embracing the stem. Floral-leaves spear-shaped, purplish towards the point. Flowers in long terminal spikes, unilateral, pendulous. Blos

(This plant should probably rank among the vegetable poisons. It is said to be decidedly narcotic; but the qualities seem to vary, perhaps according to its growth in watery or drier situations. E.)

+ The different species of Scrophularia afford nourishment to Phalana Verbasci, Curculio and Tenthredo Scrophularia.

(From digitus, a finger; its flower resembling the finger of a glove, (and hence sometimes called Finger-flower); so named by Fuchsius, after its German designation. E.)

soms numerous, purple, elegantly mottled, and hairy within; inversely conical, but tumid on the under side, large, and handsome. E.) Var. 2. Fl. alb. Flowers white.

Shenstone Lane, near Hartlebury, Worcestershire. Stokes. (On Ramps Holm in Derwentwater. Mr. Winch. By the road side near Penmynydd, Anglesey. Welsh Bot. E.) About Moxhull, Staffordshire. The pure milkwhite colour of the blossoms renders this variety an ornament to our flower-gardens.

PURPLE FOXGLOVE. (Irish: Mearecan. Welsh: Ffion y ffridd; Bysedocochion. Gaelic: Meuran-sith. E.) Hedge-banks and sides of hills in dry gravelly or sandy soil, but it is not found in flat grounds, except in very dry land, for though the seeds vegetate there, the winter wet decays the roots, which are otherwise biennial.

Very common in the midland and western, but rare in the eastern, counties. (Óliver's Mount, near Scarborough. Mr. Travis. Abundant in the county of Durham, but becomes scarce to the north of the Tyne, though it may be noticed in the neighbourhood of Rothbury and Roathley, in Northunfand. Mr. Winch. E.) B. June-July.*

(Foxglove was not unknown to the ancients as a medicinal plant, and its celebrity as a vulnerary was marked in Italy during the middle ages by the proverb " Aralda tutte le piaghe salda:" but it was reserved for our author more scientifically to ascertain its real virtues, and thus not only to extend his own reputation, but to assuage the sufferings of humanity. The writer of the Monthly Review for Feb. 1824, says, "In 1785 Dr. Withering published his Account of the Foxglove,' (a treatise which has been reprinted with the MEMOIRS and TRACTS of the author, in two vols. 8vo. 1822), which forms beyond doubt the most important point in his medical career. For ten years, he had been engaged in studying the properties of this powerful drug; and even after this long period, it is probable that he would still have delayed to give his opinions on the subject to the public, had he not found that measure necessary for the purpose of protecting his own fame, and his just right to the merit of the discovery. Those who are most intimately acquainted with the history of medicine can best tell what multitudes of drugs have been discovered, lauded, universally employed, and in no long time consigned to neglect and oblivion; but the Foxglove is at this day acknowledged to possess all the virtues which its discoverer claimed for it, viz. "a power to control the action of the heart, and to increase the secretion of the kidneys," p. 165. As a remedy for various kinds of dropsy, particularly that hitherto almost incurable disease Hydrothorax, its importance has been amply decided. It has been more recently employed as a sedative, and has proved serviceable in retarding the undue quickness of pulse, in many cases of pulmonary consumption and other inflammatory action; and yet more permanently advantageous in abating maniacal excitement, according to the prediction of the author. (Vid. Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on the state of Lunatic Asylums, 1815: passim.) "From every part of Dr. Withering's work," adds an anonymous writer, "the reader may promise himself instruction: "-it is a book which, according to the public testimony of the cele brated Professor Cullen, "should be in the hands of every practitioner of physic." (Mat. Med. 4to. Ed. p. 555.) The valuable qualities of this very handsome plant have not been inappropriately commended by S. H.

[blocks in formation]

It stands recorded, and by a female too, that "women of the poorer class, in Derbyshire, drink large draughts of Foxglove tea, as a cheap means of obtaining the pleasures, or

LINNE'A. Calyx double, that of the fruit four-leaved, that of the flower with five divisions, superior: Bloss. bellshaped Berry dry, three-celled.

L. BOREALIS.

(Hook. Fl. Lond. 199-E. Bot. 433. E.)-Fl. Dan. 3-Blackw. 597—Fl. Lapp. 12. 4-Kniph. 9-Ludw. 142-H. Ox. v. 2. 19.

Stems thread-shaped, from three to six feet long, trailing. Leaves opposite, roundish-egg-shaped, with two or three serratures on each side, ending in leaf-stalks. Branches alternate, undivided, upright, an inch long, bearing six or eight leaves. Fruit-stalks terminating the older branches, solitary, a finger's length, upright. Blossom white on the outside, flesh-coloured within. (In the night emitting a fragrant odour like the Spiraea. Berry dry, three-celled. Seeds solitary, or in pairs. Linn. E.)

TWO-FLOWERED LINNEA. First found in an old fir-wood at Inglismaldie, Kincardineshire, by Prof. J. Beattie, jun. In fir-woods at Craibstone, six miles from Aberdeen. Mr. Anderson. (Other stations have since been observed in Scotland; and in England it has been discovered by Miss

the forgetfulness, of intoxication !" A scandalum magnatum on the sex, we would fain believe. In particular districts it may be found in vast profusion. The heights of Haldon, above Teignmouth, to the left of the road leading towards Dawlish, present many acres so thickly covered with Foxglove as to be worthy the attention of the apothecaries' herbarists, who might from that spot with little trouble obtain a genuine and ample supply, and thus avoid the serious disappointment too frequently arising from the substitution of Verbascum, (Mullein) or some other inefficacious herb. It should be particularly observed, that the leaves, by being kept to a second year, lose their strength, and the diuretic qualities become much diminished. It is therefore necessary to gather the plant fresh every season. The Foxglove in its most ample dimensions is really a superb plant. Mr. W. Christy assures us be gathered a specimen in the vicinity of Tintern Abbey, which measured in height seven feet, nine inches; length of the spike four feet, ten inches; number of flowers thereon three hundred and eleven! Nor are its beautiful blossoms unworthy the attention of the Entomologist, for therein may he occasionally find a variety of little beings, attracted by the convenience of repose, shelter, or sustenance :—

The Foxglove now in crimson tresses rich,
Depends, whose freckled bells to insect tribes
Afford a canopy of velvet bliss."

And, especially, as in a favourite haunt :

"Bees that soar for bloom,

High as the highest peak of Furness Fells,

Will murmur by the hour in Foxglove bells." Wordsworth. E.)

(This humble Lapland plant was named by Gronovius, with the concurrence of LINNAUS himself, in allusion to the unobtrusive habits of the great philosopher, whose genius, immortal as it now appears, was long in obtaining due consideration. This celebrated and most enlightened reformer of Natural History, the son of a Swedish clergyman, was born at Rashult, in 1707, and by extraordinary merit and the publication of various elaborate performances, succeeded to the Professorship of Botany and Medicine at Upsal, received the honour of knighthood from his sovereign Adolphus, and was ultimately elevated to the rank of nobility. He died in 1778, but not till his fame, established on an imperishable foundation, had extended throughout the civilized world.

—— “Quel lieu desert n'est plein de sa memoire ?

Il fit de chaque plante un monument de gloire."-Delille. E.)

Emma Trevelyan, likewise in an old fir-plantation, at Catcherside in the parish of Hartburn, four miles west of Wallington, Northumberland. E.) P. June.

SIBTHORP'IA.† Cal. with five divisions: Bloss. wheel-shaped, with five divisions: Stamens converging in pairs: Capsule compressed, roundish, two-celled: partition transverse : Seeds few.

S. EUROPEA. Leaves between kidney and target-shaped, scolloped. (E. Bot. 649. E.)—Pluk. 7. 6—Pet. 6. 11.

Stems numerous, a foot long, thread-shaped, limber, not much branched, trailing, often radicating, near the leaf-stalks, hairy. Leaves (rather succulent, paler underneath, E.) alternate, remote, on leaf-stalks, heartorbicular, one side opening near the centre, horizontal, with six or seven slight lobes, the lateral ones the smallest, blunt, about the breadth of a pea, sprinkled with small, simple, scattered, transparent bristles. Leafstalks short, ascending. Fruit-stalks thread-shaped, from the bosom of the leaves, upright, solitary, as long as the flower, often shorter than the leaf-stalks, pendulous after flowering. Floral-leaves awl-shaped, one towards the point of the fruit-stalks. Calyx hairy. Blossom minute, purplish at the base. Stamens (nearly, E.) equal. Linn. Herbage pale and delicate. Leaves half an inch over, with about five lobes. E.) CREEPING SIBTHORPIA. CORNISH MONEY-WORT. Shady marshy places, springs and rivulets: Cornwall and Devon, frequent. Ray. (By Buckbarrow Well, in Longsleadale, Westmoreland. Mr. Robson. Meadows at Honington, Lincolnshire. Blackstone. Under a damp, shady wall, on the left, about two hundred yards before reaching Pont y Pridd, from Cardiff. Sir J. Cullum. Bot. Guide. Near the bottom of Conner hill, on the road from Tralee to Dingle, Ireland. Mr. J. T. Mackay. Eng. Fl. E.) P. July-Sept. LIMOSELLA. Cal. five-cleft: Bloss. five-cleft, bell-shaped, nearly equal: Stamens converging in pairs: Germen twocelled Caps, often one-celled, two-valved, many-seeded. L. AQUATICA. Leaves spear-shaped, (somewhat spatulate; foot-stalks twice as long as the flower-stalks. Sm. E.)

(Hook. Fl. Lond. 62-E. Bot. 357. E.)-Fl. Dan. 69-Hall. Jen. 6. 3, at p. 295-H. Ox. xv. 2. f. 2-Pluk. 74. 4-Pet. 65. 12.

(A minute creeping plant, throwing up clusters of narrow, spathulate, glabrous leaves, one to two inches long. Flowers very small, axillary, peduncled, pale rose-colour. Stam. nearly equal. Hook. E.)

MUDWORT. Muddy and gravelly places liable to be flooded, and where waters have stagnated during winter. A. July-Sept.

(The leaves infused in milk are serviceable in sciatica and other rheumatic pains. In Sweden, also the disease affecting the feet of sheep is cured by a fomentation prepared from this plant. Fl. Suec. Dr. Swediaur's experience confirms its efficacy in rheumatic gout. Its qualities appear to be astringent and diuretic, E.)

+(So called by Linnæus in honour of Dr. Humphry SIRTHORP, Professor of Botany at Oxford. E.)

‡ (Diminutive of limus, mud ; in which it delights to grow. E.)

« AnteriorContinua »