Stellata.

SPIGELIA MARILANDICA.

CAROLINA PINK.

Class V. PENTANDRIA. Order I. MONOGYNIA.

Gen. Char. Corolla, funnel-shaped.

many seeded.

Capsules, twin, two-celled,

Spe. Char. Stem, four-sided, all the leaves opposite.

The root is perennial, unequal, simple, sends off many slender fibres, and grows in a horizontal direction; the stems, several of which rise from the same root, are simple, erect, smooth, obscurely quadrangular, of a purple color, and rise from twelve to twenty inches in height; the leaves are ovate, entire, sessile, somewhat undulated, of a deep green color, and stand in pairs upon the stem; the flowers are large, funnel-shaped, and terminate the stem in a spike; the calyx divides into five, long, narrow, pointed, smooth segments; the corolla is monopetalous, consisting of a long tube, gradually swelling towards the middle, of a bright purplish red color, and divided at the mouth into five pointed segments, which are yellow on the inside; the five filaments are the length of the stamens, and crowned with halberd-shaped anthers; the germen is small, ovate, placed above the insertion of the corolla, furnished with joints near its base, supports a round style, which is longer than the corolla, bearded towards the extremity, and supplied with an obtuse stigma; the capsule is double, two-celled, and contains many small angular plano-convex seeds. It is a native of South Carolina, and most of the South-western States, being seldom if ever found north of the potomac. It grows in rich soils on the borders of woods, and flowers from May till July.

Two species of this plant are now well known to botanists, the Spigelia anthenmintica, and the Spigelia marilandica; they have both been used as anthelmintics; the effects of the former have been extensively noticed by Dr. Browne in his History of Jamaica, published in the year 1751, and by several other distinguished foreign writers. But the accounts of the vermifuge virtues of Spigelia, given by Drs. Linning and Garden, from Charleston, South Carolina, evidently refer to the latter species, which is here described. Dr. Garden in his first letter to Dr. Hope, in 1763, says: 'About forty years ago, the anthelmintic virtues of the root of this plant were discovered by the Indians; since which time it has been used here by physicians, practitioners, and planters; yet its true dose is not generally understood. I have given it in hundreds of cases, and have been very attentive to its effects; but never found it to be of much service, except when it proved gently purgative."

Medical Properties and Uses. Pink-root is ranked among the most powerful anthelmintics. In small doses it produces but little, if any sensible effect on the system; more largely given, it acts as a cathartic, but very unequal and uncertain in its operation; in over doses it excites the circulation, and determines to the brain, giving rise to vertigo, dilated pupils, dimness, spasms, and sometimes general convulsions. Spasmodic movements of the facial muscles, and eyelids, are frequently observed by those who witness its narcotic action. At presnt this root stands at the head of the anthelmintics. It may be given to an adult in doses of one to two drachms; of the powdered root, to a child, from ten to twenty grains, to be repeated morning and evening for several days, and then followed by a brisk cathartic. The infusion is the most common form of administration. A preparation is generally kept in the shops called worm tea, which consists of pink-root, senna, manna, and savine, mixed in various forms to suit the views of different individuals.

Composita.

CICHORIUM INTYBUS. WILD, OR BLUE SUCCORY.

Class XIX. SYNGENESIA. Order I. POLYGAMIA EQUALIS. Gen. Char. Calyx, calycled. Pappus, slightly five-toothed, obscurely hairy. Receptacle, somewhat chaffy.

Spe. Char. Flowers, twin, sessile. Leaves, runcinate.

The root is perennial, long, tapering, branched, or spindledshaped, lactescent, externally yellowish, and internally white; the stalk is erect, rough, branched, angular, and rises from one and a half, to three feet in height; the leaves at the root are pinnatifid, or cut into irregular segments, like those of the dandelion: on the stalk they are alternate, sessile, somewhat spear-shaped, but indented and rough at the base; the flowers are compound, large, blue, and stand in pairs; the calyx, which is common to all the florets, is composed of a double set of leaves, the outer ones, which are five in number, are ovate, spreading, and fringed with glandular hairs; the inner set consists of about eight; the corolla is composed of hermaphrodite florets, which are regular, blue, and about twenty in number, each consisting of a short white tube, from which rises a long flat ribbed limb, divided at the extremity into five teeth; the filaments are white, slender, and unconnected; the anthers are blue, and form a hollow angular cylinder; the germen is conical, and crowned with short hairs; the style is filiform; stigmas are two, rolled back, and blue; the seeds are numerous, naked, angular, and lodged at the bottom of the calyx.

This plant belongs to the same family with the garden endive, and by some botanists has been supposed to be the same plant in its

uncultivated state; but the endive so much used as a sallad, is an annual, or at most a biennial plant, and its parent is now known to be the Cichorium Endivia. It is a native of Europe, but has been introduced, and has now become naturalized to this country, where it is found growing on the borders of cornfields, and flowers in July and August.

It appears from history that the cichorium was highly esteemed by the Romans as a sallad; and according to Pliny this name signified the wild species of the plant. The Intybus and Seris are also mentioned as its congeners, the latter implying the cultivated species.

Medical Properties and Uses. The roots and leaves of this plant have formerly been considered, as useful aperients, acting mildly and without irritation, tending rather to abate than to increase heat, and may therefore be given with safety in hectic and inflammatory cases. Taken freely, they act as a gentle purgative, and when continued for some time, they have often proved salutary in obstructions of the viscera, in jaundices, hypochondriacal and other chronic disorders. The virtues of succory, like those of the dandelion, reside in its milky juice; and in most of the plants of the order Semifloculosa, a juice of a similar nature is to be found; therefore what has been observed of the effects of taraxacum, will, in a great measure, apply to the cichorium, and we are warranted in saying, that the expressed juice of both these plants taken in large doses, frequently repeated, has been found an efficacious remedy in phthisis pulmonalis, as well as in various other affections of a similar nature. The seeds of the cichorium, which are small, angular, and of a brown color, taken in the form of a powder, or in decoction, are considered cooling, and are very much used for that purpose.