746

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

acrid and bitter juice, but which, when they are ripe, is replaced .'sugar. Ripe figs are dried in the sun or in ovens, and are afterWthpacked in drums and baskets, in which they are imported. As met" 1in the shops they are more or less compressed, are covered withwhitish, saccharine efflorescence, have a brownish or yellowish colo a [and are somewhat translucent. They have a peculiar and agreeaodour, and contain a sweet, viscid pulp, in which is the acheR 1 *’Turkey or Smyrna figs are the largest, most juicy, and sweetest: h e ® jthey are sometimes termed fat figs (caricce pingues): they are distinguish _into pulled and flat. Of 20,406 cwts. of figs, imported in 1830, n° * ethan 18,801 cwts. came from Turkey ( Parliam. Return.) a\

Composition. —Bley (Zenker’s Naturgeschicte der vorziigl. HandelspP'analyzed Smyrna figs, and obtained the following result :—Sugar of62 - 5, fatty matter 0’9, extractive with chloride of calcium 0'4, gwn 101phosphoric acid 5 - 2, woody fibre and seeds [achenia] 150'G. ^ ^

Physiological Effects. —Figs are nutritive, emollient, denude ’and laxative. In the fresh state they are both agreeable and wliolesoih •when dried, as we receive them, they readily disorder the stomach abowels, and occasion flatulence, griping, and mild diarrhoea. aS

Uses. —In those countries where they are plentiful, figs are use< art ?food. Here they are chiefly employed as a dessert. Internally theygiven in the form of demulcent decoctions (as the decoctum hordei c 'positum, L. D.) in pulmonary and nephritic affections. As laxah'^they are sometimes taken with the food, to relieve habitual constipa 11 .^’and enter into the composition of Confectio Senna, L. (Electuart ^Senna, E.) Roasted or boiled, and split open, they are employedsuppurative cataplasms in gum-boil, &c.

Dorsle'nia Contrajer'va, Linn. L.

Sex . Syst. Tetrandria,(Dorstenia Contrajerva

Botany. Gen. Char. —Monoecious,receptacle, usually llat and expanded,

Fig. 154.

gS®a©oi

coc^o©

and D. brasilien'sis, Lam-

Monogynia.

.. — Radix, L.) ^

Flowers arranged upon a d cs •and extremely variable in 1°, „males on the surface of th e jpceptacle, two-lobed, j ;,jandrous: females inunenj^j

Dorstenia Contrajerva.

A, Entire receptacle.

B, Section of ditto.

a, Female flowers.

b, Male ditto.

0, Male flower in its superficial hollow.

the receptacle, also two-- [0in most species. Ovary ° IJtwo-celled, with a single y.pended ovule in each jStyle one. Stigma two-ht jAchenia lenticular, ^° e ^ 0 uiin the fleshy receptacle ?which they are projectedelasticity when ripe. " c3 )fherbaceous plants with srhizomata (Lindley). -JtthSpecies. 1. D. Contra) ,

-Caulescent;

Linn. L. -

i-ed 1 ’

COY

ered with spreading

LeaVdS lte,

scaly stipules,mate; the lobes lance