COMMON NAMES. Velvet Leaf, Ice Vine.
    MEDICINAL PART. The root.
    Description. -- This plant is a shrub, with a round woody root and smooth stems. Leaves roundish, peltate, subcordate, and smooth above when full grown. Flowers small, and the fruit a scarlet, round, reniform, shrivelled berry.
    History. -- This is a native of the West India Islands and the Spanish Main. It is sometimes imported under the name of abuta or butna root. It comes in cylindrical pieces, sometimes flattened, and some as thick as a child's arm, and a foot or more in length. The alkaloid obtained from it has been called Cissampelin, or Pelosin.
    Properties and Uses. -- Tonic, diuretic, and aperient. Used in chronic inflammation of the bladder, and various disorders of the urinary organs. It is also serviceable in leucorrhoea and gonorrhoea. It is highly beneficial in calculous affections, rheumatism, and jaundice.
    Dose. -- Of the infusion, one to four ounces; extract, ten to twenty grains.