3 Spec. Plant. Willd. iii. 448.

Cl. 15. Ord.1. Tetradynamia Siliculosa. Nat. ord. Cruciferae.

G. 1228. Silicle emarginate, turgid, rugged; with gibbous obtuse valves.

Species 1. C. officinalis. Common Scurvy Grass. Woodville, Med. Bot. t. 29. Eng. Bot. t. 557.

Species 8. C. Armoracia.4 Broad Horse-radish. Med. Bot. 3d edit. 400. Smith's Flora Brit. ii. 690.

1 Philosophy of Permanent Colours, 2d edit. i. p. 434.

2 Journ. de Phann. 1818, p. 526.

3 Named from a fancied resemblance of the leaf to an old-fashioned snoon.

Dioscoridis.

1. Cochlearia officinalis.

Officinal, Cochlearia officinalis; herba, Dub. Herbaceous part of Common Scurvy Grass.

Syn. Cransin officinal (F.), Loflelkraut (G), Cochlearia (I.).

This is an indigenous annual, which grows on the sea-shore, and sometimes on mountainous places, in the north-west of England, and throughout the north of Europe, flowering in May. It is a smooth, fleshy plant, varying much in height, with an angled, branching, foliaceous stem. The radical leaves are reniform, spreading, and subdentate, on long petioles: the caulinar leaves are sessile, embracing, alternate, oblong, and angularly sinuated. The flowers are terminal, corymbose, and without bractea. The calyx is obtuse, spreading, concave; the petals white, entire, obovate; the fruit a globose silicle, crowned with a very short style, a little rough, and obscurely veined.

Qualities.-The fresh plant has a pungent odour when bruised, and a bitter, acrid taste, which are lost by drying. When distilled, it affords a volatile oil and sulphuretted hydrogen gas.

Medical properties and uses.-The fresh plant is stimulant and diuretic; and may prove useful when eaten freely as a salad: but its infusion in the dried state is perfectly inert.

2. Cochlearia armoracia.

Officinal. Armoracia, Lond. Cochleariae armoraciae radix, Edin. Dub. Horse radish root.

Syn. Cran, Raifort sauvage (F.), Murretig (C), Meerradys (Belg. Peperrod (Dan.), Pepperrot ( Swed.), Cbrzan (Polish), Chren (Russian), Rafano rusticano (I.), Marvisco (S), Rubao Rusticano (Portug.), Morungy vayr ( Tarn.).

This plant is a perennial, growing wild in many parts of England in moist situations, and in waste grounds, flowering in June; but it is generally cultivated for culinary and medicinal purposes. The root is long, tapering, and white, sending up many leaves, and a round, erect, branched stem, which rises about two feet in height. The radical leaves are petiolate, very large, lance-shaped, and waved, crenate, and sometimes pinnatifid. Those of the stem are sessile, much smaller, lanceolate, sometimes divided at the edges, at other times entire. The flowers are in terminal clusters, numerous, and of a white colour. The leaves of the calyx are ovate, concave, spreading, and deciduous; the petals white, obovate, twice the length of the calyx, and inserted by narrow claws. The germen is heart-shaped, bearing a simple permanent style, crowned with an obtuse stigma, and changing into an elliptical bilocular pod, containing four seeds in each cell, which frequently prove abortive.

As the acrimony, on which its virtues depend, is lost in some degree by drying, it should be preserved in sand, in a cool place.

Qualities. - Horse-radish has a pungent odour, and a very hot, biting, acrid taste, with some degree of sweetness. When kept until it is quite dry, it loses more than two thirds of its weight, and in time the whole of its pungency is dissipated.

Both water and alcohol extract its active principles. The infusion reddens litmus paper, and precipitates solutions of acetate of lead and of nitrate of silver. Coction destroys its acrimony, which depends on a volatile oil, that can be obtained separate when the mashed root is distilled with water. The oil is of a pale yellow colour, heavy, volatile at 60°, with an extremely pungent odour, and a sweetish, strong, acrid taste, exciting inflammation in the tongue and lips, to which it is applied. Einhoff, who examined this root, says, the distilled watery liquid yields traces of sulphur.1

Medical properties and uses.-This root is stimulant, diaphoretic, and diuretic; and externally rubefacient. It is used, with advantage, in paralytic affections and chronic rheumatism, both internally and externally; and in dropsy, particularly when it follows intermittent fever, in which it was successfully employed by Sydenham. It has also been found efficacious in some cutaneous affections; and as a local remedy, a syrup made with a concentrated infusion of it, as recommended by Cullen2, removes hoarseness arising from relaxation. Horseradish may be given in substance, in doses of 5 ss. or more, scraped, or in small pieces swallowed whole.

Officinal preparations. - Infusum Armoraciae compositum, L. Spiritus Armoraciae compositus, L. D. Cataplasma Sinapis, L. D.