Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

FAMILY HERBAL, 301
Sarsapauilla Plant. SarsapariUa.
A plant of the climing kind, native of the
warmer countries. The stalks run to ten or twelve
feet in length, but are weak, and support them-
selves among the bushes : they are whitish, angu-
lar, and striated, and are fall of small prickles.
The leaves are an inch long, or more, and above
half an inch broad, of an oval figure, of a deep
green on the upper side, and white underneath,
firm in their texture, and very glossy. The flow
ers are little and yellowish. The berries are black,
round, and of the bigness of a small pea. The
root is very large and slender.
The root is used. Our druggists keep it : they
split it in two. It is brown on the outside, and
white within ; and its taste is insipid. It is sup-
posed to have great virtues, but they are not perfectly
established. They have been at times disputed,
and at times supported. Given in decoction,
it promotes sweat and urine. It has been
esteemed good against the
scurvy, and famous in
the cure of the veneral disease. It is, in general.,
accounted a sweatener of the blood.
Sassafras Tree. Sassafras.
A beautiful tree, native of America, and
to be met with in some of our It
gardens. grows
twenty five or thirty
feet high. The trunk is
naked till it comes near the top. The branches
grow near together, and spread irregularly. The
leaves are of two kinds : those on the older parts
of the twigs are oblong and pointed, somewhat
like bay leaves ; and those on the tops of the
blanches are larger, broader, and divided into
three parts, like the leaves of maple, or they carry