A New Distribution of Umbelliferous Plants

...and are sometimes divided into 7 lobes, closely joined to one another toward the stalk; in the manner of the common mountain sanicle, but of a darker green; from their center emerge stalks a foot and a half high, supporting at their tops many small, broadish, short, greenish leaves, which surround in a star-like fashion the base of the half-inch rays. These rays bear very small flowers, composed of five petals (in the manner of other Umbellifers), the color of peach blossoms, adorned with as many small stamens with reddish tips. As each flower falls away, it is succeeded by two seeds, which are striated, rough, or wrinkled. There is a smaller species of this plant, a span high A "span" (spithama) is an ancient unit of measurement, about 9 inches or the width of an outstretched hand., which is smaller in all the aforementioned parts and bears seed half as large, as we have observed in the Royal Garden at Blois The Hortus Regius Blæsensis was a significant 17th-century botanical garden in France..

Place & time.

Both species grow in the Alps; they flower in May and June, and shortly thereafter they bring their seeds to maturity. See the general Table of seeds, etc., and Table of Illustrations 4, where we have taken care to have the plant itself newly drawn and engraved, laden with seeds, so that learned Botanists might observe the carelessness and negligence of the aforementioned modern authors. These authors cling tooth and nail to the ancients, calling it black hellebore or veratrum following Dioscorides, simply because (if it pleases the gods) of its black roots and its ability to purge.

Names.

Black Astrantia by Lobel. Female Sanicle by Gesner and Fuchs. Black Masterwort and Female Sanicle by Tabernaemontanus. Black Hellebore with a larger sanicle leaf by Caspar Bauhin. Mountain Masterwort original: "ostertitium montanum" in the descriptions of Tragus. The other species is named Black Hellebore with a smaller sanicle leaf by Caspar Bauhin. To us, however, it is more fittingly named with Tabernaemontanus as the greater black masterwort, and the other the lesser black masterwort, placing and naming them among their own kind.

Temperament & powers.

This entire plant has a hot and sharp nature. The root and seed have more sharpness than the stalks and leaves, which—it is worth noting—is a trait common to all Umbellifers; that is, they work more effectively through the seed and root than the leaves. This is because the seeds of all of them are hot, and I exclude neither hemlock nor coriander. Even though the leaves of both of these, while they are still green and full of nourishing sap, give off a foul odor and spread a sort of poisonous quality that is unpleasant and harmful to the sense of smell, their dried seed is nevertheless pleasant in odor and taste. Indeed, the seed shows itself to be hot and dry, even if that quality lay hidden while it was still green and full of sap. Regarding the power of the roots of this Black Masterwort to purge black bile and other humors, Germany provides several very experienced physicians as witnesses, who have successfully restored the melancholic to health by purging them with these roots. Gesner also testifies to this purging faculty in a letter to Occon, in which he reports that he first experienced the powers of Black Astrantia to be almost similar to white hellebore, but milder, purging through the bowels. This confirms the opinion of Dodoens—namely, that it is the black veratrum of Dioscorides. For this reason, Dodoens and Fabius Hildanus prescribe it in a decoction for the treatment of a hardened spleen schirrhi lienis: a "scirrhus" is a hard tumor or swelling of the spleen. Fuchs affirms that his "female sanicle" closely approaches the true sanicle in form and faculty, and that in it, as in the male, there is bitterness and astringency. The flowers are white with a dilute color, somewhat purplish, or as Dioscorides says, "white tinged with purple" original Greek: λευκοὶ ἐπιπορφυροὶ. Though it may have the faculties of one or the other veratrum, or Hellebore, and be more effective for all purposes, it by no means approaches veratrum, at least regarding its principal parts—namely the flowers and seeds (as is evident from the book of nature). These entirely resemble the umbellifer called Masterwort original: "ostertitium" by Tragus. In consideration of its purgative faculty, which I do not deny despite Gesner’s experience, it can be arranged among the purgatives, just like Thapsia (from the root of which they gave the name Turbith) and many other umbellifers. But by reason of the parts required to constitute a perfect umbellifer, I contend by best right that it is indeed an umbellifer, and that in taste, smell, and the form of its other essential parts, it entirely approaches the Black Masterwort—so named aptly enough from the blackness of its roots. See Illustration Table 4, where you have the plant itself, that is, the leaves, stalks, and the umbel laden with striated, rough seeds.

ALEXANDERS original: "Smyrnium". It received its name from its place of birth. There are two species given; the first and larger one rests upon a thick root, white inside and out, fragrant, and sharp with a certain bitterness. It produces solid stalks, more than a cubit A cubit is roughly 18 inches, the length of a forearm. high. The leaves are larger than those of marsh celery, dark green, spread over the ground near the base; they grow in three-parted sets on their own stalks or petioles before the plant itself begins to produce a main stem. The flowers on the cubit-high stalks (more or less, depending on the soil in which it is planted) sit at the very tops, composed of 5 white petals. The seeds are thick, black, striated or angular and slightly wrinkled, solid, twice as thick and larger than the seeds of all the aforementioned plants of its class. They cling to each other in pairs, curved at the part where they join; by that very characteristic, Alexanders is easily recognized from others of its race...