1128

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

Briar or Eglantine, is found a remarkable gall, called the Sweet Briar Sponge

sea Fungus Rosarum). Pliny terms it, in WlFig. 206. (Hist. Nat. lib. xxi. cap. 73, ed. Valp.), on ge

(pilula), in another (Ibid. lib. xxv. cap. 6) aS F(spongioid). It is produced by the puncture of s •ral insect species; viz. Cynips Rose and Bra (both of which are elaborately described by I* aburg, Mediz. Zoolog . Bd. ii. S. 146, et seq.)> a ^ 0 fspecies of Mesoleptus. Other species (as .Diplolepis and Pttromalus) are also found W j, egalls ; but they are probably parasites, and no ^true inhabitants. The Bedeguar is usually r “ u ar a nbut of variable size, sometimes being an inch, ^inch and a half, or more, in diameter. Exter^ c0 .it looks shaggy, or like a ball of moss, bein„ ^vered with moss-like branching fibres, which a n(J .„ , „ . t, . 0 - first green, but become afterwards purple. -1° -,|j

Bedeguar, or Sweet Briar Sponge. cleus s is comp osed principally of cellular tissue,^

woody fibre; and where the fibres are . atta c j, ofbundles of spiral vessels are observed. Internally there are numerous cells, in ea ^ (r(ltswhich is the larva of an insect: if opened about August or September, Jy(larvae) are usually found. It is inodorous, or nearly so; its taste is s, !' , sUS .astringent, and it colours the saliva brownish. It has not beenpected to contain tannic and gallic acids. Dried and powdered, it was formerly g - tm doses of from ten to forty grains, as a diuretic and lithontriptic. More rece p]i n yhas been recommended as an anthelmintic, and as a remedy against toothache. rsays, the ashes mixed with honey were used as a liniment for baldness. I ,J a ° seplace he speaks of the fungus being mixed with bear’s grease, for the same p ur P°

Order 58. Legumino's/E, Jussieu. —The Bean Tribe.

Fabace^e, Lindley.

Essential Character. — Calyx of five (rarely of four) sepals, more or less un■ jnthe base, and, therefore, five-toothed, five-cleft, or five-partite; sepals uneq^ c on-some cases almost equally coherent, in others concreted into two lips; the upp p ^ {eesisting of two sepals, which are either free at the apex or united ; the lower o^sepals generally distinct at the apex. Petals five, or, by abortion, four, t " re r ^|y o®one, or none; generally unequal, inserted usually into the base of the calyx, ra e tjm eSthe torus; in general variously imbricated, rarely valved, almost always free, so p or niunited into a gamopetalous corolla. [In the sub-order Papilionacee , the P e jj a c oiH'

,, _ a butterfly-shaped or papilionaceous coxoi :i i,,m or

Fig. 207. posed lar £ e 'petal called

standard, two lateral ones termed ale 0 j na tedand an inferior keel-shaped one deno c0tI1 -carina or keel, and which is, in . ’ ar o-in-]posed of two petals adherent at their ciicrallyStamens inserted with the petals ” tr jple ° rdouble the number of the latter, rare ly the

quadruple or fewer; altogetherfilaments variously connected, being ot

phous, with the tube entire or cleft ver ydiadelphous nine and one, or five an Qarp e *rarely triadelphous .• anthers two-cel e • ^ t „ogenerally one, the others being ahortiv’ y e ofto five. Ovary oblong or ovate, th e

stipitate, free, or, very rarely, a . aa aristof*stipe to the calyx. Style one, t>Mo ’j na l o rfrom the upper suture: stigma te g .coD'

Papilionaceous flowers. lateraL Ler J umes t« o-valved, membra