Flora Medica

CONVOLVULACE.E.form from cordate to linear, all pointed, and lobed, or angular anddowny. Peduncles axillary, downy, many-flowered. Flowers large,white. Bractes oval, concave, velvety, deciduous. Ovary seated on alarge glandular disk. Stigma 2-lobed. Capsules involved in the drycalyx, absolutely 4-sided, 2-celled, opening at the apex by a kind ofoperculum. Seeds round, black, 1 in each cell. The fresh bark ofthe root rubbed up with milk is used in India as a purgative. About6 inches in length of a root as thick as the little isfinger reckoned adose.807. I. macrorhiza Mich. FL Bor. amer. i.141, supposedto be the Convolvulus Jalapa Linn., a plant inhabitingthe sandy soil of Georgia and Carolina, with white insipidfarinaceous roots weighing from 40 to 50 Ibs., is asserted byElliott (sketch i. 253.), to possess no purgative properties whatever.Dr. Baldwin assured him that he had administered 6drachms of the powdered root without effect, and that in fact itcontains little or no resin, but like the Batatas consists chieflyof saccharine and farinaceous matter.808. I. pandurata. Convolvulus panduratus Linn, sp.pl. 219.Barton mat. med. i. t. 23. Common in North America insandy fields and by fences from Canada to Florida " ; Mechameck"of the Indians.Root very large, 2 or 3 feet long and as thick as the arm, of a yellowochrecolour. Stem downy. Leaves on long stalks, broadly cordate,entire, acuminate, slightly repand. Peduncles many-flowered, cymose,longer than the petioles. Corolla large, campanulate, white, dull purpletowards the base. Stamens white, the length of the tube. Thepowdered root acts like rhubarb ; it requires to be given in larger dosesthan jalap. It has an American reputation as a remedy for calculousaffections, and in cases of gravel.809. I.Purga Wenderoth in lift, ad Zttccar. Schkcht. inLinncea viii. 515. I. Schiedeana Zuccarini Plant, nov. fasc.i. 293. t. 12. I. Jalapa Nutt. in Am. journ. med. sc. v. 300.Purga of the natives of Jalapa. Laschachne, TetonpactleMexicans On the eastern declivity of the Mexican Andesnear Chiconquiaco and near San Salvador on the eastern face ofthe Cofre de Perote, at an elevation of about 6000 feet abovethe sea. The mountains near Orizaba.Root tuberous, fleshy, with numerous roundish tubercles. Stemsmooth, brownish, very slightly rough. Leaves stalked, the first hastate,the succeeding ones cordate acuminate, mucronate, smooth. Pedunclesaxillary, 2-flowered, twisted, the length of the corolla. Sepals obtuse,mucronate, smooth. Corolla purple, with a long somewhat clavatetube, and an undulated limb, with 5 plaits. Filaments smooth ; unequal,longer than the tube of the corolla ;anthers linear, projecting. Stigmacapitate, deeply furrowed. Capsule 2-celled; cells 2-seeded. Fromthe statements of Dr. Schiede, and others, confirmed by an unpublishedletter in the possession of the Horticultural Society of London, fromDon Juan de Orbegozo, a pupil of Cervantes, residing at Orizaba, it396