b(o C *34 ]
L I T H O S P E R M U M officinale.
Common GromweU.
P E N T A N D R I A Monogynia.
G en. C har. Cor. funnel-fhaped, pervious, and naked.
Cal. in five divifions.
Spec. C har. Seeds finooth. Corolla fcarcely longer
than the calyx. Leaves lanceolate.
Sy n . Lithofpermum officinale. Linn. Sp. PI. 189.
HudJ. FI. An. 79. With. Bot. Arr. 189. Relb.
Cant. 76.
Lithofpermum, feu Milium Solis. Raii Syn. 228.
F ' OUND here and there flowering in May, in a dry, gravelly,
or chalky foil. Root perennial and ftrong. Stems ereft,
roundilh, rough with clofe-prefled briftles, and clothed with
alternate, lanceolate, entire leaves, which are flightly revolute
in their margin, hairy beneath, rough above with minute cartilaginous
tubercles, as in many of this tribe. Each of the numerous
flowering branches terminates in a recurved leafy fpike
of pale yellowilh flowers in the feeding ftate thefe branches
become erect, much elongated, and the leaves they bear are
confiderably enlarged, being broader than thofe on the ftem.
It is feldom that more than two feeds are perfected in each
flower. They are exquifitely polifhed, of a grey or yellowilh
hue, very hard, but brittle, feeming of a ftony fubftance;
whence the generic name, and whence alfo the ancient celebrity
of thefe feeds as a cure for the ftone, though it is difficult
to imagine on what principle ftony fubftances Ihould be
given as a cure of that complaint. The excellent Ray, too credulous
in medical matters, celebrates them, trufting to others
for that honefty and judgment in their ftudies which he exer-
cifed in his own. Others have aflerted that the feed effervefces
with acids ; but Linnaeus ( Flo. Suec.) contradicts this, and we
have carefully made the experiment without fuccefs.