The American journal of pharmacy Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ART. III.—ON JUNIPERUS SABINA. By Caleb H. Needles. (.'lit Inaugural Essay.) Juniperus Sabina, U. S.—The savine plant has been made officinal in most of the P... more »harmacopoeias, its medicinal virtues have been long known, and yet it is an article very little used. BOTANICAL HISTORY. The Juniperus sabina belongs to the class Dicecia, Order Monodelphia, L., and to the Natural Family Conifers of Jussieu. SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION. This shrub seldom rises above three feet in height. The flowers, which are male and female, grow on different plants. The male catkin consists of three opposite flowers arranged in a triple row, and a tenth flower at the end. At the base of each flower is a broad scale fixed laterally to a columnar pedicle. There are filaments in the terminal flower only, tapering and united at the base, with simple anthers, which are sessile in the lateral flowers. The calyx in the female flowers is 3 permanent scales; the petals are stiff, sharp, and also permanent, and the germen supports three styles with simple stigmas.— The fruit consists of a blackish purple colored berry : it is marked with tubercles which are the remains of the calyx and petals. These berries, upon examination, are found to contain three small hard seeds ; they have an unpleasant smell with a hot and bitter taste. OBSERVATIONS AND GENERAL HISTORY. Loudon, in his Encyclopaedia, gives a detail of this plant. According to his account, the word Juniperus was derived from the Celtic, jenoperus, signifying rough, and rude, whichis, indeed, characteristic of the plant. The word sabina originated from the nation of Sabines, whose priests used it in their ceremonies. The different species comprize a numerous list. They are (with one or two exceptions) close, conical, evergreen shrubs or trees. In...« less