297.  AMMI majus.  Bishops-weed. The Seeds.—­The seeds of common bishops-weed are large and pale-coloured:  their smell and taste are weak, and without any thing of the origanum flavour of the true ammi, which does not grow in this country.  They are ranked among the four lesser hot seeds, but are scarcely otherwise made use of than as an ingredient in the theriaca.—­Lewis’s Mat.  Med.

298.  Amygdalus Persica.  Almonds.  Flowers.—­They have a cathartic effect, and especially to children have been successfully given in the character of a vermifuge for this purpose; an infusion of a dram of the flowers dried, or half an ounce in their recent state, is the requisite dose.  The expressed oil of almonds has been for a long time, and is at present, in use for many purposes in medicine.  The concentrated acid of the bitter almond is a most dangerous poison to man and all other animals.

299.  ANAGALLIS arvensis.  Pimpernel.  The Leaves.—­Many extraordinary virtues have been attributed to them.  Geoffroy esteems them cephalic, sudorific, vulnerary, anti-maniacal, anti-epileptic, and alexiteral.

300.  Anchusa angustifolia.  Bugloss.  The Roots, Leaves, and Flowers.—­ Bugloss has a slimy sweetish taste, accompanied with a kind of coolness:  the roots are the most glutinous, and the flowers the least so.  These qualities point out its use in hot bilious or inflammatory distempers, and a thin acrimonious state of the fluids.  The flowers are one of the four called cordial flowers:  the only quality they have that can entitle them to this appellation, is, that they moderately cool and soften, without offending the palate or stomach; and thus in warm climates, or in hot diseases, may in some measure refresh the patient.

301.  Anemone Hepatica.  Hepatica.  The Leaves.—­It is a cooling gently restringent herb; and hence recommended in a lax state of the fibres as a corroborant.

302.  Antirrhinium Elatine.  FLUELLIN.  The Root, Bark, and Leaves.—­They were formerly accounted excellent vulneraries, and of great use for cleansing and healing old ulcers and cancerous sores:  some have recommended them internally in leprous and scrophulous disorders; as also in hydropic cases.

303.  Antirrhinium Linaria.  Toad flax.  The Flowers.—­An infusion of them is said to be very efficacious in cutaneous disorders; and Hammerin gives an instance in which these flowers, with those of verbascum, used as tea, cured an exanthematous disorder, which had resisted various other remedies tried during the course of three years.—­Woodville’s Med.  Bot. p. 372.

304.  Aquilegia vulgaris.  Columbine.  The Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds.—­It has been looked upon as aperient; and was formerly in great esteem among the common people for throwing out the small-pox and measles.  A distilled water, medicated vinegar, and conserve, were prepared from the flowers; but they have long given place to medicines of greater efficacy.