The northern flora, or, A description of the wild plants belonging to the north and east of Scotland, with an account of their places of growth and properties. Part. 1 / by Alexander Murray.
- Date:
- 1836
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The northern flora, or, A description of the wild plants belonging to the north and east of Scotland, with an account of their places of growth and properties. Part. 1 / by Alexander Murray. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![rENUVNUKlA.] JASIONE. within many miles of which, they do not now reach upon the same coast; and thus may have a tendency to suggest that the northern limits of species are retiring in a southward direction :— Augt. 13, 1764. Comite Dre. Reid, iter meridionale feci, 14 V. 15 mill, passuum, usq. ad Fowlsheugh in comitatu Mearn. plantasque sequentes in veni—Scandix Pecten inter segetes prope Dunnottar Castle—Campanula $f/omerafa—Epilobiura ramosum (Mr- suiuni) et Astragalus glycyphyllus. The roots of several species of Bell-flower are said to increase milk in the breasts of nurses ; but that is an idle conceit/' says a writer of the last century.* There vras, no doubt, far more truth in the old opinion that the Throatworts, as they were called, are astringent; and in particular, that a decoction of the root of C. latifolia, with the addition of a little red wine and honey, is useful in soreness of the throat and mouth, and in relaxations of the uvula. GENUS XVI. JASIONE. Calyx superior, of one leaf, in five segments. Corolla wheel-shaped, in five deep segments. Anthers united at the base. Stigma club-shaped. Capsule blad- dery, imperfectly two-celled, opening at the top. SPECIES. 1. Jasione montana. Sheep's Bit. Sheep's Scabious. Root tapering, woody. Stems several, a span high. Leaves rough, stalkless, oblong, narrow, bluntish, wavy, and usually entire. The light-blue flowers are in terminating globular heads, which are supported, each upon along stalk, and surrounded by an involucre of many ovate leaves. Very rare in the North-east. Coast of Moray. Shingle ridges, between Spey and Lossie. Mr. Stables. Annual—flowering in June and July. Obs,—The flowers of Jasione montana have no little resemblance, in appearance, to those of one or more species of Scabiosa. The common account has been here copied, as to the species being a span high and flowering in midsummer; but it may deserve mention, These conceits seem dccasionally founded on, what may be called, an ap- parent physical relation between the cure and the disease. Thus, Pulmonaria, because its leaves had spots like those upon the lungs, was thought useful in pul- monary complaints; and Lithospermum was celebrated in Stone, on account of the Btony hardness of its seeds—shall I add, that Saxifraga graiiulala got its character as a lithontriptic from its root looking like so many little calculi f In the same way, it may be believed that the Bell-flowers were supposed useful in deficiencies of the lacteal secretion, owing to the milky juice which the plants contain.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21942973_0155.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
