Flora Medica

SCROPHULARIA.104-8. S. nodosa Linn. sp. pi 863. Eng. Bot. t. 1544. SmithEng. Fl. iii. 137. Hedges woods and thickets in most parts ofEurope. (Figwort.)Herbage nearly or quite smooth, fetid like Elder when bruised.Root whitish, tuberous, beset with fleshy knobs. Stem 2 or 3 feet high,nearly simple, leafy, acutely quadrangular, smooth. Leaves stalked,ovate-oblong, acute, sharply and unequally serrated ; heart-shaped atthe base, where they are cut away, as it were, to the 2 small lateralribs. Flower-stalks axillary and terminal, forked, angular, glandular,forming a panicled, leafy cluster. Bracteas lanceolate. Flowers a littledrooping. Calyx smooth. Corolla of a dull green, with a livid purplelip. Capsule ovate-oblong. Smith. Leaves and roots said to bepurgative and emetic. They have a bitter taste, and a heavy disagreeablesmell. A decoction of the leaves is used by farmers to cure the scabin swine. Burnett.1049. S. aquatica Linn. sp. pi. 864*. Eng. Bot. t. 854-.Smith Eng. Fl. iii. 138. Ditches and watery places in manyparts of Europe. (Water Betony.)Root entirelyfibrous. Herb quite smooth, foetid, of a deep shininggreen. Stem taller than S. nodosa, straight, leafy, nearly simple,winged in some degree at the four angles. Leaves copiously and finelyserrated, veiny, ovate-oblong; heart-shaped at the base, and runningdown the edges of the footstalks ; their lateral ribs not reaching to themargin of the leaf. Cluster of many forked branches, bearing numerousflowers, whose tube is green, the limb of a dark blood-red, more conspicuousthan in S. nodosa. Capsule globular. Smith. Propertiesmuch as in the last species. Burnett however says that they cannot bevery unwholesome plants, because the garrison of Rochelle, during thecelebrated siege by Cardinal Richelieu in 1628, supported themselvesin their extremity by eating the roots of S. aquatica, which has sincethat time been called by the French, herbe du siege.HERPESTES.Calyx 5-parted the upper ;sepal very large, ovate, the 2 lowestnarrower, the 2 lateral ones linear and covered by the rest.Corolla tubular, somewhat 2-lipped; the upper lip bifid, thelower trifid, with all the segments flat and nearly equal. Stamensdidynamous, enclosed anthers ;approximated in pairs,with diverging or divaricating segments which finally becomesomewhat confluent. Capsule scarcely furrowed, 4-valved, withthe edges of the valves flat.1050. H. Monniera HBK n. g. et. sp. ii. 294. Benth. scroph.ind. 30. Gratiola Monniera Linn, amcen. acad. iv. 306. Roxb.fl. ind. i. 14-1. Monniera Brownei Pers. i. syn. 116. M. cuneifoliaMx.fl. bor. am. ii. 22. Herpestes cuneifolia Pursh.fl. am.802. Bramia sept, ii.418. H. procumbens Spreng. syst.ii. indicaLam.enc.i. 4-59. Calytriplex obovata R. and P.fl- peruv.prodr.t. xix. Tropical parts of the world in both hemispheres.Stems several, annual, creeping, round, jointed, very branching,503 K K 4