part ii. Materia Medica. — Heracleum gummiferum. 823

Qualities. — The odour of the recent plant is foetid, the tasteof the leaves, when chewed, bitterish, biting, and so acrid as toexcoriate the mouth. The stipules possess these qualities in agreater degree than the proper leaves.

Medical properties and uses. — The leaves of foetid helleboreare strongly cathartic and emetic; and in overdoses provehighly deleterious. They have been successfully, althoughthey are now rarely, used as an anthelmintic against the lum-bricus teres, for which they were strongly recommended byDr. Bissett; and Woodville tried them with advantage upon agirl of twenty years of age, in the Middlesex Dispensary. Theyare given dried, hi the form of powder; or a decoction made byboiling ^ij. of the recent leaves, or ^ss. of the dried, in f^viij. ofwater for fifteen minutes; or a syrup made with the expressedjuice of the recent leaves moistened with vinegar, which is sup-posed to correct the violent effects of the drug.

The dose of the powder is from grs. vj. to 9 j.; of the decoc-tion from f <y.; and of the syrup a tea-spoonful at bed-time, andone or two in the morning, to children betwixt two and six yearsof age, on two or three successive days.

HERACLEUM. Spec. Plant. Willd. i. 1421.CI. 5. Ord. 2. Pentandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Umbellatse.G. 54fl. Fruit elliptical, emarginate, compressed, striated, margined.

Corolla difform, inflex, emarginate. Involucre caducous.Species. H. gummiferum. Gum-bearing Heracleum. Willd. Hortus

Berolin. i. t. 53, 54.Officinal. Ammoniacum, Lond. Edin. Dub. Ammoniac.

St/n. Gomme Ammoniaque (J*.), Ammoniak (G.), Gomma Ammoniaco (/.),Amoniaco (&)> Ushok or Feshook (Arab.)

The plant which yields this gum-resin is a native of Africa,and the East Indies. It has not been scientifically describedby any one who has seen it growing in its native soil l , and thedescription which is about to be given, is that of a plant whichWilldenow reared from seed found in the ammoniacum of theshops, and has named Heracleum gummiferum. The LondonCollege, on his authority, has admitted it as the ammoniacumplant; it flowers in June and July. The root is tapering, aspan in length, flesh}', whitish, and twice divided at the apex.The stem rises three feet in height, is branched, erect, about aninch thick at the base, deeply furrowed, and sparsely furnishedwith hairs. The branches are opposite and divaricated. Theradical leaves are a span in length, cordate, three-lobed, tooth-ed, pubescent on the under surface, and supported on roundish,channelled, furrowed, petioles: the stem-leaves are opposite,somewhat cordate, three or four inches long, toothed, on pe-

1 Mr. Jackson has seen and described the plant, of which he has also given afigure, but neither can be regarded as scientifically correct; and of course notauthority to be relied on. Account of Morocco, p. 83.

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