POLYGALA SENEGA.

Seneca Snake root.

PLATE XXX.

THE HE Seneca snake root has attracted so general an attention from the medical public, as to have become an article of exportation to Europe, and one which holds a regular place in the druggist stores. The plant which produces it has nothing to boast on the score of elegance, and little to attract attention independent of its medicinal virtues. It grows in most latitudes of the United States, especially in the mountainous tracts. The specimen, from which our drawing was taken, was gathered on the borders of Lake Champlain.

The genus Polygala has a five leaved calyx, two of the leaves wing like, and coloured. Capsule obcordate, two celled, and two valved.

13

The species Senega has erect, smooth, simple stems, with alternate, lanceolate leaves, broadest at base. Flowers slightly crested.

Class Diadelphia, order Octandria; natural orders Lomentaceæ, Linn. Pediculares, Juss.

The Polygala senega has a firm, hard, branching perennial root, consisting of a moderately solid wood, and a thick bark. This root sends up a number of annual stems, which are simple, smooth, occasionally tinged with red. The leaves are scattered, nearly or quite sessile, lanceolate, with a subacute point, smooth, paler underneath. Flowers white, in a close terminal spike. The calyx, which in this genus is the most conspicuous part of the flower, consists of five leafets, the two larg est of which, or wings, are roundish-ovate, white, and slightly veined. Corolla small, closed, having two obtuse lateral segments, and a short crested extremity. Capsules obcordate, invested by the persistent calyx, compressed, two celled, two valved. Seeds two oblong-obovate, acute at one end, slightly hairy, curved, blackish, with a longitudinal, bifid, white appendage on the concave side. The spike opens gradually, so that the lower flowers are in fruit while the upper ones are in blos

som.

The rose coloured variety of this plant, as it has been considered by Michaux, proves to be a distinct species. Some species which I possess from Carolina have branching, pubescent stems, and very long, loose spikes. The flowers are several times larger than those of P. senega.

The root of the Polygala senega has an unpleasant and somewhat acid taste. After chewing, it leaves a sensation of acrimony in the mouth, and still more in the fauces, if it has been swallowed. These properties it communicates fully to water upon boiling. The process of decoction does not appear to dissipate any of its power, since the distilled water is destitute of the taste and smell of the plant. Alcohol dissolves a substance, apparently of the resinous kind, giving a precipitate when water is added. Iron produces little change in solutions of this root, and gelatin occasions no alteration whatever.

Medicinally administered, the Seneca snake root is sudorific and expectorant in small doses, and emetic and cathartic in large ones. Its most usual mode of exhibition is in decoction, which may be made of suitable strength by boiling an ounce of the root in a pint and an half of water, till it is reduced to a pint. This preparation may

in most cases be given in doses of a table spoonful and upward without disturbing the stomach.

The first reputation of the Seneca root was one which it divides with a multitude of other plants, that of curing the bite of the Rattlesnake. A reward was given by the legislature of Pennsylvania to Dr. Tennent for the promulgation of this supposed property. When, however, we consider the number of cases of recovery from the bite of this serpent, under every variety of treatment, we cannot avoid the conclusion, that these injuries are not necessarily dangerous, and that spontaneous recoveries are perhaps as frequent as those which are promoted by medicine.

More certain success attends the use of the Seneca in pneumonia and some diseases related to it. In the advanced stages of pneumonic inflammation, after venesection and the other usual remedies have been carried to their proper extent; and the cough still remains dry and painful, while the debility of the patient forbids further depletion; in these cases, I have often found a decoction of the Seneca root to afford very marked relief by promoting expectoration, and relieving the tightness and oppression of the chest. Various medical writers have spoken favourably of its employ