Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

354 FAMILY HERBAL.'
in its manner of growing. It is two feet high,
when it grows in a favourable soil, and has
bushes or any thing else to support it. The stalks
are weak and green ; the leaves stand irregularly
on them, and they are oblong, narrow, and auriculated
at the bottom. The flowers are small,
hollow, and of a deep dusky purplish colour.
The root is composed of a vast quantity of strings,
which are of a dusky olive colour, and of a
strong smell and aromatic taste. The roots of
this plant were the first that came into use, under
the name of Virginian snakeroot, but there arc
upon the spot two other plants of the same kind,
though different specie^, which have thready roots
of the same form, and they are indifferently taken
up for use; they
all seem to have the same vir-
tue, so that there is no harm in the mixture.
There i3 sometimes another root mixed among
them ; but that is easily distinguished, for it is
black, and these are all of the same dusky olive
colour. This last adulteration should be avoided.
The Virginian sn.ikeroot is an excellent medicine
in fevers ; it operates by urine and by sweat,
and will often take off inveterate head-achs.
It is also given by some as a remedy against
worms ; and it was originally famous against the
poison of the rattle-snake, and was a remedy we
icarnt from the Indians. It is good against
worms in children, and may be given in small
doses for a continuance of time. Scarce any
thing
is more effectual.
The Vomic Nut Tre*. Nux vomica^
A TALL and spreading tree of the East, very
like that which affords the wood called snakewood
in the shops, and by some supposed th