Flora Medica

CHELIDONIUM.CHELIDONIUM.Sepals 2. Petals 4. Stamens numerous. Capsule long,2-valved, 1-celled, with the valves opening from the base to theapex, Seeds with a glandular crest Evergreen tender perennials,with an acrid yellow juice.45. C. majus Linn. sp. pi. 723. Eng. Bot. 1. 1531. Fl Dan.t. 676. i.DC.prodr. 123. S. and C. ii. t. 86. Woodv. t. 263.Shady places all over Europe. (Celandine.)A biennial. Stem 2 feet high, branched, swelled at the joints, leafy,round, smooth. Leaves smooth, very deeply pinnatifid,their lobes in2 or 3 pairs, the terminal one largest,all rounded, bluntly lobed andnotched ;the lateral ones sometimes dilated at their lower margin, nearthe base, almost as if auricled ;their colour a deep shining green.Flowers bright yellow, umbellate, on long, often hairy stalks. Calyxtawny, often hairy. Seeds black and shining, each with a whitish deciduouscrest. The juice is a violent acrid poison. It has been regardedmedicinally as stimulating, aperient, diuretic, and sudorific, it was alsoconsidered a powerful deobstruent. It is a popular remedy for warts,and has been employed successfully in opacities of the cornea.Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 9.FU MARIA.One petal only gibbous or spurred at the base. Achenium1-seeded, its style dropping off after flowering.46. F. officinalis Linn. sp. pi. 984. Eng. Bot. t. 589.DC. prodr.i. 130. A common weed, in dry waste ground.An annual glaucous weed. Stem much branched, spreading, oftenrecumbent, leafy, angular. Leaves mostly alternate, twice or thrice pinnateleaflets ; wedge-shaped, with flat lanceolate segments. Racemesopposite to the leaves, stalked, erect, many-flowered, rather lax. Bractslanceolate, acute, not half the length of the flower-stalks, especiallywhen in fruit. Flowers rose-coloured, or pale red, deep red at the summit,with a green keel to the upper and under petals. Spur very short,rounded. Calyx coloured, toothed, deciduous. Fruit globose, emarginate.Herbage bitter, slightly diaphoretic and aperient the ; juicewas formerly administered in cutaneous diseases and obstructions ofthe liver.17 c