Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

346 FAMILY HERBAL
Turnip. JRapum.
A plant too common in our gardens to require
a curious description. The root is round and
white, or purplish. The leaves are large, long-,
rough, and of a deep green ; they are deeply
cut at the edges, and large and round at the ends ;
the stalks are a yard high, round, smooth, firm,
upright, and branched ; the leaves on them are
small and smooth ; the flowers are little and yellow,
and they stand in a kind of long spikes ; they are
followed by long pods.
The roots are so frequently eaten, that few
would think of their possessing any medicinal
virtues, out being cut into slices, and stewed with
sugar,
till their juice with the sugar, becomes a
syrup ; this is a very irood medicine against a
comrh
vs.
Turpen tin:; Tri e. Terebinth us.
A tall tvcQ in the East, where it is native .we
have it in gardens, but it never arises to any
great height here. The bark is brown and rough :
the branches are numerous and stand irregularly ;
I he leaves are each composed of a double row
of smaller set on a common rib, with an odd
one at the end. These are oval, and of a deep
shining green. The flowers are small and pur-
in form of clusters of threads
ple ; they appear
before the leaves the ; fruit is
long,
but with a kernel
of a resinous taste. T.ui wh ;le shrub lias also a
resinous smell.
We use no part of the tree but the fine Chio tur-
pentine, the most esteemed of all those balsams, is
obtained from it ; in the island whence it ha*
its name. It is a pleasant and an excellent mcdi-