a genus of the digynia order, be- longing to the pentandria clas of plants, of which there are five

Species. 1. The sativa, or common angelica, which is cultivated in gardens for medicinal use, and likewise for a sweetmeat, grows naturally in the northern countries. The root of this species is brown, oblong, and an inch or two thick, fragrant, and acrid. The leaves are very large, composed of pinnated foliolas, of an oblong oval figure, dentated at the edge, and the odd leaf at the end of the pinna lobated; the stalk is round, striated, and as thick as a child's arm. The umbels are very large, and of a globose figure; the flowers very small, and greenish. 2. The archangelica is a native of Hungary and Germany. The leaves are much larger than those of the former, and the flowers are yellow. 3. The sylvestris grows naturally in moist meadows, and by the sides of rivers, in many parts of Britain; so is seldom admitted into gardens. 4. The atro-purpurea canadensis. 5. The lucida canadensis. These are natives of North America, but have neither beauty nor use.

Culture. The common angelica delights to grow in a moist soil: the seeds should be sown soon after they are ripe. When the plants come up about six inches high, they should be transplanted very wide, as their leaves spread greatly. If they are planted on the sides of ditches or pools of water, about three feet distance, they will thrive exceedingly.

Medicinal Uses. For the purposes of medicine, Bohemia and Spain produce the best kinds of angelica. The London college direct the roots brought from Spain to be alone made use of. Angelica roots are apt to grow mouldy, and be preyed upon by insects, unless thoroughly dried, kept in a dry place, and frequently aired. We apprehend that the roots which are subject to this inconvenience might be preserved, by dipping them in boiling spirit, or exposing them to its steam, after they are dried.

All the parts of angelica, especially the root, have a fragrant aromatic smell, and a pleasant bitterish warm taste, glowing upon the lips and palate for a long time after they have been chewed. The flavour of the seeds and leaves is very perishable, particularly that of the latter, which, on being barely dried, lose the greatest part of their taste and smell: the roots are more tenacious of their flavour, though even these lose part of it upon keeping. The fresh root, wounded early in the spring, yields an odorous, yellow juice, which, slowly exsiccated, proves an elegant gummy resin, very rich in the virtues of the angelica. On drying the root, this juice concretes into distinct molecules, which, on cutting it longitudinally, appear distributed in little veins: in this state, they are extracted by pure spirit, but not by watery liquors.

Angelica is one of the most elegant aromatics of European growth, though little regarded in the present practice. The root, which is the most efficacious part, is rarely met with in prescription, and does not enter any official composition. See Materia Me- dica, p. 104.