Pharmaco-botanologia: or, An alphabetical and classical dissertation on all the British indigenous and garden plants of the New London dispensatory : In which their genera, species, characteristick and distinctive notes are methodically described; the botanical terms of art explained; their virtues, uses, and shop-preparations declared ... / By Patrick Blair.

Patrick Blair

Date:: 1723[-28]

Credit: Pharmaco-botanologia: or, An alphabetical and classical dissertation on all the British indigenous and garden plants of the New London dispensatory : In which their genera, species, characteristick and distinctive notes are methodically described; the botanical terms of art explained; their virtues, uses, and shop-preparations declared ... / By Patrick Blair. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$a* The univerfal and perennial Circulation of the Sap., is hinted at in Betula, where 'tis obfervable, that inflead of flag- nating and thickning, like a Gum in the Winter, as a certain Writer has ajjerted, it's chiefly employ d in the Accretion of the Wood* and Bark, as appears by the annual Circles of the for¬ mer. That at the Winter and Summer Solflice, thefe being called the Setting Times, it's chiefly employ'd in augmenting and flretching forth of the Root j and when thefe Functions are perform'd, its Baflnefs is to pujh forth the annual Surface and vernal Shoots, and ripening of the Fruit in the Autumn. So that this plentiful Effufion of Sap, upon boring or piercing of the Birch Tree in the Spring, is becaufe the Sap being diverted from augmenting of Wood, Bark, and Root, forc'd up by a daily additional Supply of Particles, which afcend from the Earth in greater Quantity by the Heat of the Sun, in its nearer Approach to our Horizon, and being confin'd in narrower Bounds before the Annual Surface, viz. the Leaves, Katkins, and Ver¬ nal Shoots be fully ftretcht, continues to flow in fuch Abundance . throughout the Trunk of the Tree ; and, what is mofl re¬ markable, as this Surface is gradually augmented, fo this Ef¬ flux of the Sap fenfibly diminishes. Let me add, that at the dry¬ ing up of the exile Membranes of the Bark, the Orifices of the Veffels which nourijh'd them are flopp'd, and the Quantity of the Sap which flows into the Sap-Veffels of the Trunk is thereby aug¬ mented. The fame is alfo obfervable in Caprifolium and Vitis, which throw their Bark every 2d or 3d Tear, by which the Sap of the Trunk is vaflly augmented, as may be obferv'd in the tapping or wounding of a Vine in the Spring, before the Annual Surface is fully flretcht forth. V.’iY'VVv , '„4 . \ 7,\ V' Cv V* i T 7v\C Ay V.'A 9. The Sexes of Plants in Bryonia and Cannabis,'when be¬ cause the M ile often happens to be at a great Difiance in the firft ; alfo in Lupulus, they are more frequently propagated by the$

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