Spec. Plant. Willd. iii. 481. Cl. 15. Ord. 2. Tetradynamia Siliquosa. Nat. ord. Cruciferae. G. 1237. Pods opening elastically, with revolute valves. Stigma entire. Calyx somewhat gaping. *** With pinnate leaves. Sp. 19. C. pratensis.3 Cuckoo flower. Med. Pot. 3d ed. 396.

t. 133. Smith's Flora Britan. ii. 699. Officinal. Cardamine, Lond. Cardamines Flores, Edin. Dub.

The flowers and leaves of Cuckoo Flower.

Syn. Cresson de Pres (F.), Wiesenkresse (G.), Koekkesbloem (Dutch), Kar-damine (Ital.)

1 Wood soot, Fuligo ligni, may be regarded as a variety of charcoal.

2 Vide London Med. Repos. vol. iii. p. 7.

Dioscoridis.

Cuckoo flower is a perennial, indigenous, herbaceous plant, which grows in moist meadows, and flowers in April and May. The root is tuberous, and somewhat toothed. The stem rises about nine inches in height, is erect, smooth, stiffish, somewhat angular, and a little branched at the top: the leaves are dark-green, pinnated; the radical ones petiolate and spreading; those of the stem almost sessile; the leaflets are four pair or more, opposite, with a terminal one; on the lower leaves they are roundish, and irregularly dentated; but become more entire, linear, pointed, and concave, the nearer they are to the top of the stem. The flowers terminate the stem in a corymb, and stand upon smooth naked peduncles. The calyx is yellowish green, composed of four concave, oblong, nearly obtuse, deciduous scales, alternately larger, and protuberant at the base; the corolla is cruciform, the petals large, of a very pale purple colour, or white, ovate, veined, and slightly emarginate, with a yellowish green base. The filaments are six: four long, standing above the corolla, and two short, almost hid, supporting small, oblong, yellow anthers; and invested at the base with four nectarious glands.

The germen is the length of the stamens, slender and round, with a sessile stigma; it becomes a bivalved compressed pod, an inch in length, which, when the seeds are ripe, opens elas-tically, and rolls back in a spiral form. The seeds are many and round.

Qualities. - Every part of the plant is inodorous; but the flowers and leaves are slightly bitter and pungent, having, when fresh, in an inferior degree, the taste of water-cresses. The leaves are often added to spring salads.

Medical properties and uses. - Cardamine flowers are said to be diuretic and antispasmodic. They were supposed to be useful in all affections of the head by the ancients1: but their efficacy in spasmodic diseases was first mentioned by Dale2, on the authority of a MS. of Dr. Tancred Robinson; and they were afterwards, in the year 1767, strongly recommended by Sir George Baker3, who had successfully used them in the cure of chorea, spasmodic asthma, and some other convulsive affections. Dr. Odier of Geneva4 mentions a case of incubus which was cured by their use, although it had resisted several other antispasmodic medicines. They sometimes produce diaphoresis, but have otherwise little sensible operation. They are seldom used. The leaves have been regarded, as possessing antiscorbutic qualities, but they have very little efficacy. The dose of the dried flowers powdered is from one drachm to three drachms, given twice or thrice a day.

1 Cuckoo flowers form a part of the wreath "of idle weeds," with which Shakspeare has decorated the head of Lear, in his madness.

2 Pharmacol. 204. 3 Med. Trans, i. 442. 4 Manuel de Medecine pratique, etc. Lect. xvi.