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A S P E R U L A cynanchica.
Squinancy-wort.
T E T R A N D R IA Monogynta.
Gen. Char. Corolla of one funnel-Ihaped petal.
Seeds two, globofe. .
S p e c . Char. Leaves linear, in fours, except the upper
ones, which are oppofite. Stem fomewhat
ere£t. Flowers four-cleft.
Syn.' Afperula cynanchica. Linn. Sp. PI. 151. HudJ.
FL An. 66. With. Bot. Arr. 159. Relh. Cantab.
64.
Rubeola vulgaris quadrifolia lævis, floribus purpu-
rantibus. Rail. Syn. 225.
F O U N D on dry, chalky, funny banks, in moft parts of
England, flowering in the middle of fummer. Our fpecimens
came from Dartford. The root is perennial, but does not
thrive well in a garden, requiring, probably, like many other
plants, its natural Ihelter of herbage; The Items are moftly
procumbent, ereft at their extremities only. The leaves very
unequal in length, generally in fours, rarely five; blunt, but
tipped with a ffiarp point. The flowers have a great degree of
beauty, being white or blufh-coloured, elegantly marked with
red lines. They have a fweet fmell, which, however, like that
of Woodroof flowers, is rarely to be perceived. As they dry
they become rugged, in which ftate Linnseus appears to have
defcribed them in his Species Plantarum.
Dalechampius feems to be the chief authority for the reputation
this plant has acquired in the cure of quinfies, from
which its name is taken. He fays it fhould be applied externally
as well as taken inwardly. It is out of ufe, as we are
now furnilhed with remedies of more undoubted efficacy in
ffie putrid as well as inflammatory fore throat.