distinguished, as Savine is attended with danger when taken
immoderately.

221. JUNIPERUS communis. JUNIPER. Berries. L. E. D.--Juniper berries
have a strong, not disagreeable smell; and a warm, pungent sweet taste,
which, if they are long chewed, or previously well bruised, is followed
by a bitterish one. The pungency seems to reside in the bark; the sweet
in the juice; the aromatic flavour in oily vesicles, spread through the
substance of the pulp, and distinguishable even by the eye; and the
bitter in the seeds: the fresh berries yield, on expression, a rich,
sweet, honey-like, aromatic juice; if previously pounded so as to break
the seeds, the juice proves tart and bitter.

222. LACTUCA virosa. WILD LETTUCE. Leaves. E.--Dr. Collin at Vienna
first brought the Lactuca virosa into medical repute; and its character
has lately induced the College of Physicians at Edinburgh to insert it
in the Catalogue of the Materia Medica. More than twenty-four cases of
dropsy are said by Collin to have been successfully treated, by
employing an extract prepared from the expressed juice of this plant,
which is stated not only to be powerfully diuretic, but, by attenuating
the viscid humours, to promote all the secretions, and to remove
visceral obstructions. In the more simple cases proceeding from
debility, the extract in doses of eighteen to thirty grains a-day,
proved sufficient to accomplish a cure; but when the disease was
inveterate, and accompanied with visceral obstructions, the quantity of
extract was increased to three drams; nor did larger doses, though they
excited nausea, ever produce any other bad effect; and the patients
continued so strong under the use of this remedy, that it was seldom
necessary to employ any tonic medicines.--Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 76.

Similar Plants.--Sonchus arvensis; Lactuca Scariola.

223. LAVANDULA Spica. LAVENDER. Flowers. L. D.--Lavender has been an
officinal plant for a considerable time, though we have no certain
accounts of it given by the ancients. Its medical virtue resides in the
essential oil, which is supposed to be a gentle corroborant and
stimulant of the aromatic kind; and is recommended in nervous
debilities, and various affections proceeding from a want of energy in
the animal functions.--Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 323.

224. LAURUS nobilis. BAY-TREE. Leaves and Berries. L.--In distillation
with water, the leaves of bay yield a small quantity of very fragrant