Bidens information(spanish nettles and Bur marigold)

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King's American Dispensatory. by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D.: Bidens.—Spanish Needles. The root and seeds of Bidens bipinnata, Linné. Nat. Ord.—Compositae. Common Name: Spanish needles. Botanical Source and History.—Bidens bipinnata is an annual plant, with a smooth, branched stem growing from 1 to 4 feet high. The leaves are bipinnately parted, nearly smooth and petioled; the leaflets ovate-lanceolate, pinnatifid, mostly wedge-shaped at the base; the heads of flowers on slender peduncles, each with 3 or 4 obscure, obovate, yellow rays; the outer involucre of linear scales are as long as the inner, and nearly as long as the short, pale, yellow rays; the, achenia, are long and slender, 4-grooved and angled, nearly smooth, 3 or 4-awned, and adhere to the dress and to the fleece of animals (G.—W.). This is a common plant, growing in waste places on dry soils, flowering from July to September, and found from Connecticut to Pennsylvania and westward. The root and seeds of this and the related plants below mentioned are employed medicinally, and may be used in decoction, infusion, or tincture. Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Emmenagogue and expectorant; the seeds in powder or tincture have been successfully used in amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, and some other uterine derangements; and an infusion of the root has proved beneficial in severe cough. Hay asthma has recently been treated with it. Infusion freely administered. Related Species.—Bidens frondosa, Linné. Common beggar-ticks. Europe and United States This plant has a smooth, branching, rather hairy stem, from 2 to 6 feet high. Leaves 3 to 5, divided; leaflets lanceolate, pointed, coarsely-toothed, mostly stalked; outer leafy involucre much longer than the head, ciliate below; rays none; flowers in clusters at the end of the branches, yellow; achenia wedge-obovate, 2-awned, the margins ciliate with upward bristles, except near the summit. This is a common, very troublesome weed, growing in moist, cultivated fields throughout the United States; the achenia, as in the other species, adhering by their retrorsely-barbed awns to clothes, etc. It flowers from July to September (G.—W.). Bidens frondosa in infusion has cured several cases of croup, even where they have been considered beyond aid. A strong infusion of the plant, sweetened with honey, was administered to the children, warm, in doses of a tablespoonful or more every 10 or 15 minutes, until it vomited. A quantity of mucous and membranous shreds were ejected, followed by immediate relief; the children passed into a sleep, from which they awakened perfectly well. In a few hours after the emetic operation of the warm infusion, it acted as a cathartic. The leaves from which the infusion was made, were, at the same time placed in a piece of flannel with some brandy added to them, and laid over the chest and throat. This plan is also beneficial in colds, acute bronchial and laryngeal attach from exposure to cold, etc. An infusion of the seeds formed into a syrup with honey, is useful in whooping-cough. Dr. Scudder directs attention to its action on the heart and circulation, suggesting investigations in this line. Bidens connata, Willdenow (Bidens tripartita, Linné). Cuckold's, or Swamp beggar-ticks, has a smooth stem, 4-furrowed, with opposite branches, and grows from 1 to 3 feet high; the leaves are lanceolate, opposite, serrate, acuminate, slightly connate at the base; the lower ones are mostly trifid; the lateral divisions are united at the base, decurrent on the petiole; the scales of the outer involucre are longer than the head, leafy, mostly obtuse, scarcely ciliate; rays none; the achenia is narrowly wedge-form, 2, 3, or 4-awned, with downwardly-barbed margins; the flowers are terminal, solitary, consisting only of the tubular, yellow florets, surrounded by a leafy involucre. This is likewise a common weed found in wet grounds, rich fields, swamps, and ditches, from New England to Missouri. It flowers in August (G.—W.). Bidens connata has likewise been recommended in the above affections, also in palpitation of the heart, in which the infusion or decoction, drank freely through the day, has been found effectual. Bidens cernua, Linné, Bur-marigold. Europe, Canada, and the United States. The leaves are subconnate, dentate, and lanceolate; the external scales are long as disk; the rays are pale yellow, few or none; the heads are cernuous (nodding). Swamps and ditches. For the uses of all three species, see also Bidens bipinnata. Agrimony (Water) Botanical.com Botanical: Bidens tripartita (LINN.)Family: N.O. Compositae Description Medicinal Action and Uses ---Synonym---Bur Marigold.---Part Used---Whole plant. The Water Agrimony, now called the Bur Marigold is an annual flowering in late summer and autumn, abounding in wet places, such as the margins of ponds and ditches, and common in England, but rather less so in Scotland. ---Description---The root is tapering, with many fibres attached to it. The erect stem grows about 2 feet high, sometimes more, and is wiry and nearly smooth, angular, solid and marked with small brown spots, so as to almost give it the dark purple appearance described by Culpepper. It is very leafy and the upper portion branches freely from the axils of the leaves, which are placed opposite one another and are of a dark green colour 2 to 3 inches in length. All except the uppermost are narrowed into winged foot-stalks at the bases, which are united together across the stem. They are smooth and sharp-pointed, with coarsely toothed margins, and are divided into three segments (hence the specific name of the plant), occasionally into five, the centre lobe much larger and also often deeply three-cleft. The uppermost leaves are sometimes found undivided. The composite flowers are in terminal heads, brownish-yellow in colour and somewhat drooping, usually without ray florets the disk florets being perfectly regular. The heads are surrounded by a leafy involucre, the outer leaflets of which, about eight in number, pointed and spreading, extend much behind the flower-head. The fruits have four ribs, which terminate in long, spiky projections, or awns, two of which, as well as the ribs, are armed with reflexed prickles, causing them to cling to any rough substance they touch, such as the coat of an animal, thus helping in the dissemination of the seeds. From these burr-like fruits, the plant has been given the name it now universally bears. These burrs, when the plant has been growing on the borders of a fish-pond, have been known to destroy gold fish by adhering to their gills. The flower-heads smell rather like rosin or cedar when burnt. [Top] ---Medicinal Action and Uses---This plant was formerly valued for its diuretic and astringent properties, and was employed in fevers, gravel, stone and bladder and kidney troubles generally, and was considered also a good stypic and an excellent remedy for ruptured blood-vessels and bleeding of every description, of benefit to consumptive patients. Culpepper tells us that it was called Hepatorium 'because it strengthens the liver': 'it healeth and drieth, cutteth and cleanseth thick and tough humours of the breast and for this I hold it inferior to few herbs that grow . . . it helpeth the dropsy and yellow jaundice; it opens the obstruction of the liver, mollifies the hardness of the spleen, being applied outwardly. . . it is an excellent remedy for the third day ague; . . . it kills worms and cleanseth the body of sharp humours which are the cause of itch and scab; the herb being burnt, the smoke thereof drives away flies, wasps, etc. It strengthens the lungs exceedingly. Country people give it to their cattle when they are troubled with cough or are broken-winded.' It has sometimes been employed on the Continent as a yellow dye, but the colour yielded is very indifferent. The yarn or thread must be first steeped in alum water, then dried and steeped in a decoction of the plant and afterwards boiled in the decoction. A nearly-allied species, Bidens bipinnata (Linn.), popularly called Spanish Needles, is a native of North America, where the roots and seeds have been used as emmenagogues and in laryngeal and bronchial diseases. MARIGOLD (NODDING). Another species of Bidens, called B. cernua, popularly known as the Nodding Marigold. The flowers are somewhat larger than B. tripartita,and have a much more decided droop, hence the name 'Nodding.' The leaves are not made up of three leaflets but are of lanceolate form, deeply serrated. It is found by streams and ditches, and flowers during the later summer and autumn Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com