American Medical Plants, Millspaugh, C.1802[21] This upright, widely branching, perennial herb, grows to a height of from 1 to 2 feet from a fusiform root. Stem upright, cylindrical and branching, somewhat hairy and very brittle. Leaves alternate, petiolate, large, pale-green and glaucous, lyrate pinnatifid, with a crenately cut or lobed border, the terminal lobe obovate-cuneate. Inflorescence, pedunculated, somewhat umbellate, axillary clusters, with nodding buds and medium-sized flowers, the sepals, petals and stamens of which are early deciduous. Peduncles 2 to 4 inches long, bearing from 3 to 8 pedicels i inch in length, and involucrate at their base. Sepals 2. Corolla cruciform; petals 4. Stamens 16 to 24. Style merely present; stigma 2-lobed. Fruit a linear, slender pod, about i inch in length, somewhat swelled at intervals, the two valves opening upward from the base to the apex ; seeds rounded, reniform, with a glandular ridge at the hilum, and a crustaceous, blackish-brown testa, marked with more or less regular, hexagonal reticulations.
(Millspaugh, Charles F.[21])
Folklore, Myths and Legends
History and Traditions
Celandine grows all over Germany and France, in waste places, on old walls, along roadways, and about dwellings ; it is pretty well naturalized in the United States, but so far it is not found at any great distance from dwellings, flowering from early in May until October. A fine gamboge-yellow, acrid juice, pervades the plant, root, stem and leaves ; this fact led those who practised upon the doctrine of signatures, to employ the drug in hepatic disorders, from its resemblance to bile in color. It proved one of the hits of that practice. The U. S. Ph. still mentions Chelidonium, but not officinally; it will probably be thrown aside at the next revision as worthless, totidem verbis.
(Millspaugh, Charles F.[21])
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This upright, widely branching, perennial herb, grows to a height of from 1 to 2 feet from a fusiform root. Stem upright, cylindrical and branching, somewhat hairy and very brittle. Leaves alternate, petiolate, large, pale-green and glaucous, lyrate pinnatifid, with a crenately cut or lobed border, the terminal lobe obovate-cuneate. Inflorescence, pedunculated, somewhat umbellate, axillary clusters, with nodding buds and medium-sized flowers, the sepals, petals and stamens of which are early deciduous. Peduncles 2 to 4 inches long, bearing from 3 to 8 pedicels i inch in length, and involucrate at their base. Sepals 2. Corolla cruciform; petals 4. Stamens 16 to 24. Style merely present; stigma 2-lobed. Fruit a linear, slender pod, about i inch in length, somewhat swelled at intervals, the two valves opening upward from the base to the apex ; seeds rounded, reniform, with a glandular ridge at the hilum, and a crustaceous, blackish-brown testa, marked with more or less regular, hexagonal reticulations.
Celandine grows all over Germany and France, in waste places, on old walls, along roadways, and about dwellings ; it is pretty well naturalized in the United States, but so far it is not found at any great distance from dwellings, flowering from early in May until October. A fine gamboge-yellow, acrid juice, pervades the plant, root, stem and leaves ; this fact led those who practised upon the doctrine of signatures, to employ the drug in hepatic disorders, from its resemblance to bile in color. It proved one of the hits of that practice. The U. S. Ph. still mentions Chelidonium, but not officinally; it will probably be thrown aside at the next revision as worthless, totidem verbis.
