Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

Coniferæ.

JUNIPERUS SABINA.

COMMON SAVINE.

Class XXII. DIECIA. Order XIII. MONADELPHIA.

Calyx a scale.

Corolla want

Gen. Char. MALE: Ament ovate. ing. Stamens three. FEMALE: Calyx three-parted. Petals three. Styles three. Berry three-sided, irregular, with the tubercles of the calyx.

Spe. Char. Leaves opposite, erect, decurrent; the oppositions closed.

This shrub is found growing in some parts of the United States, but is a native of the southern parts of Europe and the Levant. It occupies high situations, and is cultivated for medicinal purposes. It rises three or four feet high, and is covered with a reddish-brown bark; it sends off many branches, which are numerously divided. The leaves are small, numerous, opposite, erect, pointed, firm, and of a bright green color, terminating the younger branches in sharp points. The male and female flowers are on different plants; the male catkin consists of three opposite flowers, placed in a triple row, with a tenth flower at the end; at the base of each flower is a broad scale. The filaments are only in the terminal flower; they are tapering, united at the base, and furnished with simple anthers, which are sessile in the lateral flowers. In the female, (which our plate represents,) the calyx is composed of three permanent scales; the petals are stiff, sharp, and permanent; the germen supports three with simple stigmas; the fruit, when ripe, is a round fleshy berry, of a purple color, tuberculated, and containing three small irregular shaped seeds; it flowers in May and

June. The leaves have a heavy, resinous, strong, unpleasant odor, and a hot, bitter taste. They afford by distillation with water a considerable proportion of colorless essential oil, possessing the smell and taste of Savine. Water extracts the activity from the leaves, but alcohol is considered much the best; both water and spirituous extracts possess considerable pungency and warmth, but they retain scarcely any of the odor of the plant.

Medical Properties and Uses. Savine is a powerful stimulant, acting upon the skin, bowels, and uterus, and has long been considered the most efficacious in the Materia Medica for producing a determination to the uterus, and thereby proving emmenagogue; it heats and stimulates the whole system, and is said to promote the fluid secretions. The power which this plant possesses in opening uterine obstructions, is considered to be so great, that it has frequently been employed with too much success, for purposes the most infamous and unnatural. Cases of this kind are not uncommon from the deleterious effect of this plant. Dr. Cullen observes: "Savine is a very acrid and heating substance, and I have often on account of these qualities been prevented from employing it in the quantity perhaps necessary to render it emmenagogue. I must own, however, that it shows a more powerful determination to the uterine vessels than any other plant I have ever employed; but," says he, "I have frequently been disappointed in this, and its healing qualities always require great caution." In over doses it is capable of producing dangerous gastro-intestinal inflammation, and should never be given when much general or local excitement exists. It is most conveniently administered in the form of powder, of which the dose is from five to fifteen grains, repeated three or four times a day.

« AnteriorContinuar »