Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

156 FAMILY HERBAL.
are large, and bell-fashioned,, white and downy on
the inside, and not altogether smooth on the outer
surface.
The fruit is large, and has a hard, firm shell on
the outside, and is fleshy and juicy within, "ith
seeds in the manner of the melons ;
an oblong shape, and hard.
these tire Hat, of
These seeds are the only part used : they are
cooling and diuretic. They have this vhiue in
much the same degree
with cucumber and melon
fseeds, and are given with them in emulsions.
Bitter Gourd, called Bitter Apple.
Colocynthis.
A native of the East, and of some other warm
countries, kept in our curious gardens, and atlord-
ing the famous drug called coloquintide. It is a
small plant of the gourd kind. The stalks are
thick, angular, hairy, and of a pale green. They
cannot support themselves, hut have a number of
tendrils growing from them, by which they lay
hold of every thing they come near. The leaves
are
large, broad, and very deeply
divided at the
edges. The flowers are of a pale yellow, large,
and not unlike the (lowers of melons. The fruit
is a round gourd,
of the bigness of the largest
orange. The bark is hard, and the inner part spungy,
-with seeds among it : these arc Hat, hard, and
of an oval figure.
The fin it is the part used ; they take off the
outer shell, and send the dried pulp with the seeds
among it : but these are to he separated afterwards,
and the pulp used alone. It is a very violent purge,
hut it may be given with proper caution ; and it is
excellent against the rheumatism, and violent
habitual head-aches. These rough purges will