Flora Medica

RANUNCULACEJE.COPTIS.Sepals 5-6, coloured, petaloid, deciduous. Petals small, cucullate.Stamens 20-25. Capsules 6-10, on long stalks, somewhatstellate, membranous, ovate, oblong, tipped with the style,4-6-seeded.27. C. trifolia Salisb. Linn, trans, viii. 305. Bigelow med.Hot. i. t. 5. Helleborus trifolius Linn. sp. pi. 784. Fl. dan.t. 566. Amam. acad. ii. t. iv. f. 18. Dark sphagnous swampsin Canada and Siberia, and mountains to the southward. (Goldthread.)Rhizomata, from which the name of gold thread is taken, perennial,filiform, creeping, of a bright yellow colour, running in every direction.New stems invested at the base with a number of yellowish, ovate,acuminate scales. Leaves ternate, on long slender petioles; leafletsroundish, acute at base, lobed and crenate, smooth, firm, veiny the;crenatures acuminate. Scape slender, round, bearing one small, starrywhite flower, and a minute, ovate, acute bract at some distance below.Sepals 5, 6, or 7, oblong, concave, white. Petals 5, 6, or 7, inverselyconical, hollow, yellow at the mouth. Stamens numerous, white, withcapillaryfilaments and roundish anthers. Ovaries from 5 to 7, stipitate,oblong, compressed ; styles recurved. Capsules stalked, oblong, compressed,beaked, with numerous black oval seeds. Its rhizomataafford a pure tonic bitter of great value, resembling quassia, gentian,and calumba, without astringency.NIGELLA.Sepals 5, coloured petaloid, spreading, deciduous. Petalssmall, 5-10, bilabiate, with a hollowed nectariferous claw. Stamensnumerous. Ovaries 5-10, more or less united at thebase, terminated by long simple styles. Capsules more or lessconsolidated, beaked with the styles, opening by the ventralsuture, polyspermous with the putamen, which is membranous,;separating from the sarcocarp, and forming a large spurious cellin the interior of each carpel. Leaves capillary, multifid, oftensurrounding the flowers like an involucre.28. N. saliva Linn. sp. pi. 753. Fl. Grcec. t. 511. DC.prodr. i. 49. N. segetalis Bieb. taur. cam. ii. 16. MtXav&ov,Dioscorides. South of Europe, Barbary,the Levant, the Crimea,Egypt, India, in fields.Stem erect, 1-2 ft. high, many-flowered, finely downy, especiallynear the ground. Leaves capillary, cut into numerous fine segments,not involucrating the flower ; petioles downy. Flowers naked, dirtywhite. Anthers ovate, obtuse. Capsules muricated, united up to thevery point into an ovate fruit, terminated by 5 erect styles. Seedsangular. Seeds aromatic, subacrid ; they were formerly employedinstead of pepper, and have also been used as carminatives.8